College Football News Preview 2021: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the Texas Tech Red Raiders season with what you need to know.
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– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Texas Tech Schedule Analysis
– Texas Tech Previews
2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
2020 Record: 4-6 overall, 3-6 in Big 12
Head Coach: Matt Wells, 3rd year, 8-14 (52-48 overall)
2020 CFN Final Ranking: 79
2020 CFN Preview Ranking: 56
2019 CFN Final Ranking: 102
Texas Tech College Football Preview 2021: Offense
– It’s not the fun and flash of past Texas Tech offenses despite working under a head coach in Matt Wells who knows how to crank up the yards. In comes former Red Raider QB Sonny Cumbie as the offensive coordinator, and he likes to throw. 429 yards per game last year was the cost of doing business in the Big 12 – it’s not special. That’s about to change.
The quarterback play has been fine, but it hasn’t been steady. Alan Bowman struggled to stay healthy, and now he’s at Michigan. Henry Columbi is a nice all-around option, but the O needs a superstar.
Enter Tyler Shough. The Oregon transfer led the way to a Pac-12 title last year, but just as he was supposed to grow into the job, he left for Lubbock. If it all goes well, he’s got No. 1 overall pick skills
– The receiving corps is there for Shough to shine – even with Ja’Lynn Polk off to Washington and KeSean Carter leaving for Houston. 6-3, 220-pound junior Eric Uzekanma is back after leading the team with 46 catches with six scores, Myles Price is a quick target, and Shough should make everyone around him produce.
– The running game is never ignored in this attack. SaRodorick Thompson led the way with 610 yards and eight scores – he’s a 6-0, 210-pound all-around back who can carry the offense if needed – and Xavier White and Tahj Brooks are good enough to be used in a rotation.
Thanks to the whole super senior season, four starters are expected to return to an offensive line that was solid in pass protection and should be one of the team’s biggest strengths.
– What You Need To Know: Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Texas Tech Schedule Analysis
NEXT: Texas Tech College Football Preview 2021: Defense
4. Texas Tech College Football Preview 2021: Defense
– The defense wasn’t miserable, but it didn’t generate enough big plays or key stops. It needs to find something it can do well – it needs a calling card. However, under defensive coordinator Keith Patterson, all this group has to do is hold serve and let the offense do the rest. With a TON of experience returning, improving shouldn’t be a problem.
– Good luck finding a defense in America that’s getting more of a break from the super senior season. In a normal year, the Red Raider D would be gutted, but instead, 11 of the top 13 tacklers are expected back and it all starts with a potentially great linebacking corps. Former Arizona transfer Colin Schooler, Krishon Merriweahter, and Riko Jeffers are big, veteran linebackers who’ll make a whole lot of stops.
– The pass defense wasn’t all that bad after a rough first half of 2020. With three veteran producers back in the secondary after their first senior seasons, expect even more. The front line takes a hit, though, losing Eli Howard off the end, but the defensive tackle rotation is experienced, big, and potentially a plus if it can do more to be disruptive.
– What You Need To Know: Offense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Texas Tech Schedule Analysis
NEXT: Texas Tech College Football Preview 2021: Top Players
Texas Tech College Football Preview 2021: Top Players
Best Texas Tech Offensive Player
QB Tyler Shough, Jr.
It wasn’t like he was bad at Oregon. He completed 65% of his passes for 1,703 yards and 16 touchdowns with six picks, and he averaged over nine yards per attempt. He’s not really a runner, but he can take off from time to time and be fine, he has the 6-5, 220-pound size, and he’s got the all-around tools to be next year’s No. 1 overall draft pick in a class that might be relatively light on quarterbacks – at least compared to the 2021 NFL Draft.
2. WR Erik Ezukanma, Jr.
3. C Dawson Deaton, Sr.
4. RB SaRodorick Thompson, Jr.
5. OG Weston Wright, Jr.
Best Texas Tech Defensive Player
LB Riko Jeffers, Sr.
The best player could be Colin Schooler or leading tackler Krishon Merriweather, but Jeffers is the four-year veteran who has been through all the battles and knows how to handle this D. He’s a 6-2, 235-pound outside playmaker with 223 career tackles and six sacks with 22.5 tackles for loss. He wasn’t a huge recruit, but he turned into one of the Big 12’s best defenders.
2. LB Colin Schooler, Sr.
3. LB Krishon Merriweather, Sr.
4. S Eric Monroe, Sr.
5. CB DaMarcus Fields, Sr.
Top Incoming Texas Tech Transfer
QB Tyler Shough, Jr.
The Red Raiders landed a few other transfers who should be decent – S Marquis Waters should find a home right away – but getting a quarterback with Shough’s upside was a major coup.
He still needs polish and has to speed up his decision-making skills, but it’s not a stretch to call him the most talented quarterback in Lubbock since that Mahomes guy was winging it around.
NEXT: Texas Tech College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
Texas Tech College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
Texas Tech Biggest Key: Offense
Get that passing groove back. The offense wasn’t bad, but it’s Texas Tech – three 300-yard passing days in ten games and just one in the last eight isn’t acceptable.
Enter Sonny Cumbie as the offensive coordinator, and that should change. However, the running game was working late last year, and now the offense needs to find the right blend to be on brand and explode again.
Offensive balance is nice, but it doesn’t always help to run for 200 yards if you’re not able to control games and the clock. Texas Tech will never win the time of possession battle on a regular basis, it has the veteran receivers in place, and it’s got the high-end quarterback in Tyler Shough to make it all go.
This doesn’t have the be the high-flying 400-yard air show of the Mike Leach days, but it needs to have the ability to do that.
Texas Tech Biggest Key: Defense
Stop the run. Stop the run. Stop the run. For a team that doesn’t control the clock and would prefer to make games high-octane shootouts than grinding battles, getting bowled over is a huge issue.
Texas Tech was 1-6 when allowing 170 rushing yards or more, and it’s 2-14 in the last 16 games when allowing that many or more. It’s not like the D wore down late – the 78 points in the fourth were the fewest allowed in any quarter last season – but the team could never seem to get control or comfortable when it was getting hammered on.
To flip this around, the program is 23-3 since 2013 when allowing 130 rushing yards or fewer.
That’s why …
Texas Tech Key Player To A Successful Season
DT Jayon Hutchings, Jr.
And throw in sophomore Tony Bradford in there, too. These two aren’t massive – Bradford goes 6-1, 290 and Hutchings is 6-0, 300 – but they’re veterans for the defensive interior who have to hold up better. The Red Raider linebacking corps is terrific and should clean everything up, but if the line can be more disruptive and consistent, everything changes for the D.
Texas Tech Key Game To The 2021 Season
TCU, Oct. 9
If this is going to be any sort of a strong year, Texas Tech has to be good enough to beat Houston in the opener. That would mean a 3-0 start with Stephen F. Austin and FIU to follow, and then comes the Big 12 season with three road games in the first four. However, one of those road dates is at Kansas, with Texas and West Virginia the others.
The Red Raiders lost to TCU 34-18 last season and is 1-3 in the last four. Win this, and they should get through the first half of the season with a winning record. Lose, and there will be a whole lot of fighting to do down the back stretch to get bowl eligible.
– Texas Tech Schedule Analysis
2020 Texas Tech Fun Stats
– Time of Possession: Opponents 32:56 – Texas Tech 27:03
– 2nd Quarter Scoring: Opponents 105 – Texas Tech 51
– Fumbles: Texas Tech 20 (lost 8) – Opponents 12 (lost 5)
NEXT: Texas Tech College Football Preview 2021: What Will Happen, Season Prediction
Texas Tech College Football Preview 2021: What Will Happen, Season Prediction
This is when the rebuild/reload is supposed to kick in – and it had better.
Texas Tech caught two big breaks. First, the extra year of senior eligibility rule is massive, otherwise it would’ve been a total redo on the defensive side. Yeah, everyone is benefiting from the one more season thing, but the Red Raiders now get just about everyone back on a D that needs improving.
The other big positive was getting Tyler Shough from Oregon. The former Duck quarterback is hardly perfect, and he’s still going to need a bit of time and tuning – he doesn’t even have the job locked down – but any time you get a quarterback who has first round NFL Draft pick upside to run your high-powered attack, you’re pleased.
It also helps to get an offensive coordinator in former Red Raider QB Sonny Cumbie to come over from TCU to make it all go.
Set The Texas Tech Regular Season Win Total At … 7
It’s Year Three under head coach Mike Wells, and this year there’s no real excuse to not at least be more interesting and be off to a decent bowl game.
The non-conference slate – Houston, Stephen F. Austin, FIU – is light and breezy enough to blow through, there’s the Kansas free space game, and there’s more then enough experience and talent on both sides of the ball to not be at least 3-6 in the Big 12.
More than anything else, Wells has to show that this thing is working. Texas Tech has to look like it’s on the verge of being a player in the Big 12, but …
Shough is probably off to the NFL next year and most of the defense will likely have to be replaced.
After going 8-14 in two seasons, 2021 has to be Texas Tech’s year under Wells.
– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– Texas Tech Schedule Analysis
