Cooped up all day on a grounded airplane is no place to be if you're Weston Wright or Dadrion Taylor-Demerson.
One's a hulking offensive lineman who can't buckle himself comfortably into a seat under the best of circumstances. The other's naturally restless, the type who might have been written up in elementary school for being unable to sit still.
They had to deal with it Friday, though, when Texas Tech's team flight to Fort Worth for the next day's game against TCU was grounded on the tarmac all afternoon and into the evening. The Red Raiders were supposed to take off at 12:30 p.m., but tornadic weather in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex caused a long delay. They didn't go wheels up until 8:05 p.m. and landed a little before 9 p.m. at Fort Worth's Meacham International Airport.
They spent most of the time in between just sitting.
Taylor-Demerson passed out before the scheduled noon-hour departure, woke up two hours later and slid up his window shade.
"We're still in Lubbock," he said Tuesday. "I'm sitting next to Mud (defensive back Marquis Waters), and I'm like, 'Ain't no way we're in Lubbock still. What's going on?' And then it's three hours, four hours, five hours, six hours, then eight hours and we finally leave.
"And then, I'm not trying to be ungrateful, but they bought us cheese pizza. That's one of my biggest pet peeves. I don't eat cheese pizza. And they had no Ranch (dressing), nothing at all. So I'm not trying to seem ungrateful, but they gave us a big box of cheese pizza. That's when I really lost it."
When Taylor-Demerson awakened from his nap, he said it was bad news for everybody, even massive defensive end Tyree Wilson. ("I like messing with him. He's easy to pick on.")
"I've got like self-diagnosed ADHD," Taylor-Demerson said, "so I'm out of my seat, walking around all over the place. ... They were lucky I slept for the first two hours. Then when I woke up, they were like, 'Awww, Rabbit's up.' I talk a lot. They love me, though. They love me."
Wright tried to kill the early part of the delay reading some science fiction and going back over his game assignment sheets. Around mid-afternoon, groups of players were allowed off the plane, but not for long.
"They said, 'Get back on the plane. Hey, we're ready to go,' " Wright said. "We're all excited, and five more hours after that, you tell me what it's going to be like in a small space eight hours in, where guys have eaten cheese pizza, burgers and all sorts of snacks. It gets some chemical warfare in there."
Like Taylor-Demerson, safety Reggie Pearson fell asleep before the scheduled takeoff, slid up his window shade three hours later and was astonished to see the view hadn't changed. Hot and uncomfortable, he welcomed their brief chance to disembark.
"We were out there playing, covering each other and stuff like that," Pearson said. "Me and (defensive back Adrian) Frye shotgunned apple juice and all that. We were trying anything and everything to do, so it was cool."
Cramped quarters provide irritation enough for a normal-sized individual. Try adjusting and readjusting when you're 6-foot-6 and 320 pounds.
"The big guys on the team are really fortunate," Wright said, "because they've made it a point to give us the business-class area where you have some extra legroom, some bigger seats. It definitely helps.
"It's still not quite as big as we would like, but it sure as heck beats being in a tiny seat, because I've been in those before when I'm flying on my own, and I take up one-and-a-half seats and I'm crushing some poor grandmother or someone like that, and you just feel awful about it."
Legroom can be an issue, too, for Donovan Smith, the Red Raiders' 6-5, 240-pound quarterback. Fortunately for Smith, he was seated in an emergency exit row with the extra space afforded.
On top of that, it's not his nature to be a complainer.
"It was a weird feeling to think we were on there for eight hours," he said, "but we had a fun time. We listened to music, had deejay sessions, got out and stretched a little bit. We almost thought we were going to run our own walk-throughs outside, but it was fun. We had pizza ordered.
"So we definitely bonded. We probably had an hour in the hotel (before lights out), woke up and went out and played. So I was proud of the team. We had a whole bunch of fun."
Senior decisions
Taylor-Demerson said he plans to stay and play for the Red Raiders in 2023 on the bonus senior season offered to every player who was on a roster for the Covid-disrupted 2020 season.
"I love Lubbock," he said, "and I like playing for coach (Joey) McGuire."
The senior from Midwest City (Okla.) Carl Albert is Tech's fourth-leading tackler with 52 stops, including three tackles for loss and a sack. Tech has 23 players with the option of returning next year on the Covid-bonus season. Taylor-Demerson is the first to say publicly he plans to be back.
Wright, who's started 39 games, said he's also considering a return in 2023, but hasn't made a decision. The Red Raiders' most experienced lineman is on track to finish a degree in mechanical engineering this coming spring. He's considering graduate school for a STEM MBA or an extra engineering specialization.
"I definitely think that this last staff has really heavily influenced me to looking forward to coming back," Wright said. "I'm just considering whether or not some job offers are coming in. That's probably the big thing."
College football
Who:Texas Tech vs. Kansas
When:6 p.m. Saturday
Where:Jones AT&T Stadium
Records:Kansas 6-3, 3-3 in Big 12; Texas Tech 4-5, 2-4
Rankings (CFP/AP/coaches poll):Kansas unranked/receiving votes/receiving votes; Texas Tech unranked in all.
Line:Tech by 3 1/2
Online stream:Big 12 Now on ESPN+
Last game:Kansas 37, Oklahoma State 16; TCU 34, Texas Tech 24
Last meeting:Texas Tech 41, Kansas 14 last year in Lawrence, Kansas
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Just plane tiresome: Red Raiders recap tedious time on a tarmac
