LUBBOCK, TEXAS – NOVEMBER 23: Head mentor Matt Wells of the Texas Tech Crimson Raiders seems to be on for the duration of a timeout huddle for the duration of the second 50 % of the higher education football match in opposition to the Kansas State Wildcats on November 23, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photograph by John E. Moore III/Getty Visuals)
The Texas Tech football coaching team has been conducting an experiment considering that just about the second Matt Wells took more than practically 3 years back and 2021 feels like the calendar year we will discover out for sure if it is doing work. The experiment has been to incorporate as a lot expertise to the roster by the transfer portal as from the high university and junior higher education ranks and this yr, all those initiatives will mainly decide how perfectly this make or split period for the head mentor plays out.
In all this period, as numerous as five crucial contributors on offense and 9 on protection will have arrived in the Hub City by means of the transfer portal. That means that this year’s two-deep will be comprised equally of players from the transfer portal and gamers that signed with Tech out of large school.
Which is how Wells has resolved to bridge the talent gap that he inherited from Kliff Kingsbury and while there have been unique successes alongside the way, this strategy has not yielded results in which it counts most, the scoreboard as he has nevertheless to earn a lot more than 4 games in a time with the Pink Raiders. But the coaching personnel is assured that will adjust this 12 months as Tech delivers back a single of the most experienced rosters in the Major 12.
What’s additional, all those returnees have been joined by even additional talent from the portal as Tech has additional 10 far more transfers to the mix this offseason, all but one particular of which are most likely to be on the industry for substantial snaps this period. So with all the new faces, let’s get a glance at where the Crimson Raiders will be improved in 2021. And getting as this staff is coming off of a 4-win year, there are rather a handful of positions the place we could begin.
QB
If presumed starting quarterback Tyler Shough can continue to be wholesome and make each individual start this 12 months, it will mark the first time because the ultimate calendar year of the Pat Mahomes period (2016) that Tech has had the same starting up QB for an entire time. (In 2017 Nic Shimonek was healthy for and performed in all 13 games but he did not start out the regular-period finale at Texas following getting benched in favor of McLane Carter.) Must that materialize, it is hard to envision that Tech will not be in better shape at the game’s most crucial placement.
Shough is the most talented QB to come by Lubbock considering the fact that Mahomes and he will be the 1st QB who was a 4-star large university recruit to get started for Tech because Graham Harrell. In addition, a lot of feel that he is a possible NFL Draft prospect as shortly as subsequent April.
All of that is to say, Shough is a entire update above the gamers this system has been relying on at QB in the put up-Mahomes era. That will only aid make the Purple Raider assault a lot more harmful and helpful than it has been in new years.
But what’s far more, the overall Texas Tech quarterback space will be in substantially greater shape this yr. No extra will stroll-ons like Jackson Tyner be questioned to commence games even in situation of an crisis. That is due to the fact this crop of Purple Raider QBs is deep.
When we learned past year that Henry Colombi is not great sufficient to be a complete-time starter in the Large 12, he is the form of competitor that groups really like to have in a pinch. Should Shough have to leave a activity or even miss a comprehensive contest or two, Colombi has the gamesmanship essential to step up and direct his group sufficiently.
But there is also stellar younger talent waiting around in the wings at the QB situation and it’s been really a very long time considering the fact that we’ve been ready to say that. Each redshirt freshman Donovan Smith and genuine freshman Behren Morton are getting optimistic testimonials for the duration of tumble camp and each could conceivably be a prospective starter in the foreseeable future.
So ideally, absent are the times in which Tech has to go to battle with sub-par QB enjoy. Saturdays when the offense has to sport system around the QBs weaknesses should be a factor of the earlier and that’s why this year’s QBs will be substantially much better than we have viewed in quite some time.
