Panic Over Recent Texas Tech Football Transfers Is Not Warranted

The recent rash of players transferring out of the Texas Tech football program has many alarmed but the reality is that none of the departed players are worth fretting over.

When a team is coming off a 5-7 season and has a head coach on the hot seat, panic tends to spread among the fan base like wildfire, even with the smallest spark. So the handwringing of many Texas Tech fans over the recent news that players like Briden Fehoko, Jonathan Giles and Tony Brown are leaving the program is understandable.

However, a clearheaded look at each situation reveals that none of the departing players are going to be missed in a significant way this season. In fact, none of the high-profile players to have moved on during Kingsbury’s entire tenure were devastating losses.

Last month, we discussed why defensive Breiden Fehoko (who left the program in January) will will not be missed. The former 4-star recruit never bought into what his coaches asked him to do, especially after his pseudo mentor Mike Smith was fired.

Though it was nice to have landed such a high-profile recruit at a position of need, Fehoko’s 38 tackles in two full seasons can be replaced by simply mediocre players. He added nothing to the defense and during his time in Lubbock, Tech ranked no. 127 and no. 128 respectively out of 128 FBS schools in total defense the past two seasons.

On the other side of the ball, two receivers, Jonathan Giles and Tony Brown have both recently announced their intentions to leave the program. This news got some of the Texas Tech “Chicken Little” fans flustered and clucking about the attrition rate under Kingsbury.

But if the doomsday fans would stop to look at the situation at receiver, they would realize that the team is well-equipped to absorb these losses. There is no position on the roster with more depth than the receiving corp.

Yes, Giles led the team in receiving last year but he was not listed as a starter on the post-spring depth chart. In fact, Giles fell out of favor half-way through last season when his work ethic and attitude caused him to lose his starting position.

That opened the door for Keke Coutee to step into the role of lead receiver. Coutee averaged just under 100 receiving yards per game over the final six games of last season. He finished the year with a monster 221-yard, two touchdown performance in the team’s win over Baylor.

Yes, Giles was productive and talented when he was fully engaged but there seems to be no indication that his attitude and production would have rebounded this season. Thus, it is better for Texas Tech to count on Coutee, Cam Batson, Zach Austin and former JUCO star De’Quan Bowman to replace Giles’ numbers. Inside receiver is one position where Texas Tech has never struggled to find production and the team will not struggle there in 2017, even without Giles.

As for Tony Brown, it is amusing that so many people are fretting over the departure of a third-string receiver. Heading into his junior season, Brown had just 27 career catches and one touchdown.

Players like Derrick Willies, Dylan Cantrell and T.J. Vasher will easily put up far greater numbers than Brown would have. His departure should be nothing more than a footnote to the offseason. But many are making it into a huge crisis.

There has yet to be any rational reason given for the concern over Brown’s transfer other than the idea that “it looks bad for Kingsbury and the program”. What really looks bad is Kingsbury’s overall 24-26 and the fact that his teams have missed a bowl game in two of the past three seasons.

Were Texas Tech winning games, no one would care about the comings and goings of a third-string receiver who has had one meaningful game in two years. But, in times of struggle many look for any opportunity to jump on the negativity train.

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Perhaps this human tendency is an attempt to help us understand why something we thought would work out has yet to yield the expected results. Or for some, these transfers are easy bullet points to add to their mounting pile of grievances and complaints.

No one is arguing that Kingsbury has been a success. Still, his shortcomings have been in recruiting and most importantly, in his choices of assistant coaches rather than losing important players via transfer.

What transfer, no matter how high-profile, has severely damaged Kingsbury’s teams? Pat Mahomes was a better quarterback than both Davis Webb and Baker Mayfield who transferred out. Mike Mitchell, once heralded as the savior of the defense, is languishing in obscurity at Southeastern University.

Running back Corey Dauphine could not beat out true freshman De’Leon Ward last season because he could not learn the offense. Defensive back Tevin Madison was a marginal player at best. Nigel Bethell, another cornerback to transfer out was too small to be effective and was a problem off the field.

The world of college athletics is dependent on young men 18-22 years-old. Today’s generation of millennials is far less willing to perseveare through adversity than previous generations. A childhood of participation trophies and constant positive affirmation has created a generation far more likely to pout and run when their artificially inflated sense of self-importance is contradicted by authority figures.

Granted, it would have been best for Texas Tech football if these players would have stayed around. This roster remains woefully young and lacks proven and experienced players.

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However, to act like the loss of these players signals the beginning of the end for Kingsbury and the 2017 team three months prior to the opening of fall camp is an absurd assumption. No player is bigger than the team and without question, none of the players to have transferred out this year are good enough to warrant mass panic.

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