From left to right: Gabby Mayo, Daryle McNair, and Brandon Banks. This picture was taken at the 2006 Nike Outdoor Nationals, where Mayo (11.43) and Banks (10.43) both won the 100, and get this – it was on Father’s Day, which is why McNair is in the middle, chillin’.

You can read all about Brandon Banks’ little sister here. She’s amped up to see Brandon – she’s the only one who calls him by his complete first name – since it’s been a while. If anyone is going to the A&M game, bring her some K-State gear. She needs some.

“I talked to him yesterday,” Mayo said Wednesday. “We talk almost every day. He likes it up there.”

Mayo grew up with her mother in Raleigh while Banks and McNair lived in Garner. But Mayo said she was always with Banks and McNair – Raleigh and Garner are separated by about seven miles.

She was always into track, while Banks was just fast, which fueled his interest in the sport. Well, to hear McNair tell the story, Mayo was also a cheerleader at Banks’ Pop Warner football games. But she was as surprised as anyone when Banks won the 2006 Nike Outdoor Nationals in the 100. She finished her race, kept running, and ran right into Banks’ arms, who was wrapping up his race.

“We never talked about it – it just happened,” Mayo said. “He’s a football player. He didn’t think he was going to win, either. Track was just a hobby.”

So imagine her disbelief when she was informed Banks plans to run track at K-State; the junior wide receiver confirmed his intentions to K-Stated last week.

“What? We just talked and he didn’t say anything about it,” Mayo said.

She hasn’t seen her older brother since Christmas. Saturday, she’ll be cheering him on, sitting with her father in K-State’s section, but without any purple to wear. Banks told gopowercat.com that he was planning to bring her some K-State gear – hey, Fritch! – and she was even talking a little trash to the A&M secondary about her brother.

Now that’s loyalty.

His first reaction is laughter.

Texas Tech sophomore Baron Batch can’t help but be amused when he’s asked about the Red Raiders’ sudden inclination to use their running backs to, well, run the ball.

“People are like, ‘Hey, you have a running game,’” Batch said.

Batch teams with senior Shannon Woods to form a highly productive tandem in the backfield. Tech averages 146.5 yards on the ground, which is 66th in the nation. And with all things considered — mostly the fact that Graham Harrell threw for 5,705 yards in 2007 — that is a significant upgrade from last season, when the Red Raiders were so one-dimensional.

Not anymore.

Already, Tech has 586 rushing yards. In 2007, in 13 games, the Red Raiders finished with 771.

And Batch, who averages 7.5 yards per carry and 60 yards per game, is also a receiving threat. He has caught 12 passes for 160 yards, and Woods isn’t too far behind, either. The team’s rushing leader (69 yards per game, averaging 6.4 yards a carry) also has eight catches for 118 yards.

It’s not quite a position battle, but the tension has made the Red Raiders better.

“We’ve worked hard at it, but the catalyst has been the competition we’ve had,” Batch said. “It’s made us better. You can see it in games. I’m trying to show up Shannon, and he’s trying to show me up. Not to say we don’t get along great because we do, but we’re real competitive and always trying to one-up the other.

“We’re better for it.”

Batch, 5-11 and 200 pounds, was a Rivals three-star recruit from Midland (Texas) High, billed as “an explosive player” in the program’s media guide. He played in 2006 as a true freshman, again backing up Woods, before rupturing his Achilles in October. He redshirted 2007, rehabbing his injury.

The burst appears to be back.

He missed being on the field, and he missed the winning.

That’s what he thinks of when he’s asked about playing for Mike Leach.

“I don’t have much to compare it to,” Batch said. “It’s fun to win, and Coach Leach is a winner. It’s fun, exciting to play for a coach who has a passion for the game. He likes things to be done perfect. Sometimes, you’re like, ‘This doesn’t make any sense,’ but then later, you’ll look back and say, ‘Yeah, that made sense.’

“It’s the little things… It all makes sense. There is a method to his madness, even when it sometimes does just seem like craziness. There’s always a reason.”

Which, conveniently enough, brings us back to Tech’s running game.

Clearly, this is the next dimension for Leach’s offense, which means Batch (and Woods) are sort of pioneers, even though it’s clear where the emphasis still lies.

“Any great team needs to be able to run the ball when it needs to,” Batch said. “We can pass it 100 times, and Graham can complete a pass whenever he needs to, but there are games where you just can’t do that.

“But it’s something that will help us in the long run, and it’s a new, refreshing twist for defensive coordinators when they come and try to game-plan against us.”