Texas Tech Football: Return of QB Jett Duffey sparking backup battle

With the season set to start in a few weeks, it’s important for Texas Tech Football to identify who could be quarterback Nic Shimonek’s backup in any event.

Texas Tech Football was without quarterback Jett Duffey for Spring and Summer, while he, and the University were working through a suspension stemming from sexual misconduct allegations. While the details are still vague at best as to what actually happened, Duffey was in violation of University code of conduct, so the football program had nothing to do with the incident, or events thereafter.

The Texas Tech Title IX panel investigated the allegations at great lengths, and found Duffey to be responsible for two counts of sexual misconduct. However, a grand jury decided there was no reason to criminally prosecute him, leaving the case and penalty up to the University.

When Texas Tech University cleared Duffey, that also cleared him to rejoin the football team late last week.

The two-deep post-spring depth chart had junior transfer McLane Carter backing up Shimonek, but several sources including RedRaiderSports.com show what appear to be some shakeups. Despite missing Spring and Summer workouts, Duffey is listed as quarterback No. 2, behind Nic Shimonek on the RRS depth chart.

With limited practices, and limited information on how Duffy’s performed since his reinstatement, it’s probably still safe to say that the competition is wide open. The other quarterbacks on the Texas Tech Football roster are junior Payne Sullins, and redshirt freshmen Colt Garrett.

During head coach Kliff Kingsbury’s media availability last week, he called Carter a “gamer,” and said, “When he knows what to do, he’s very effective. It’s when I put too much on his plate early–which I’ve done, and kind of got carried away with–that he’s struggled a bit.”

Kingsbury sounded confident in Duffy’s progression, despite the absence. “He’s gotta get acclimated and wear the helmet for a couple of days, and go from there. But I feel comfortable where it’s heading.” Kingsbury continued the Duffey update by saying, “I think Jett will come in; he’s been working hard, and he’s gotta get back in the groove and rhythm of things. But we’ve got three weeks before the first game, so I feel comfortable that by week one, we’re going to have a guy we feel great about in executing our offense.”

Exactly who will be QB2 behind Shimonek on Texas Tech Football’s official depth chart for week one is anyone’s guess at this point. However, don’t anticipate either Duffey or Carter to pump the breaks between now and then.

As we know, backing up Texas Tech’s starting quarterback is a full-time job, so this Fall Camp competition will be an interesting one to continue following.