Wreck'Em Red
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Texas Tech Quarterbacks Do Not Inspire Confidence In Spring Game

By Matthew Conner

AUSTIN, TX - NOVEMBER 24: McLane Carter
AUSTIN, TX - NOVEMBER 24: McLane Carter /
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In the Texas Tech football spring game, fans got one final look at the 2018 team before the regular season arrives and what they saw from the quarterbacks was uninspiring at best.

Those looking for reassurance from Saturday’s spring game that the 2018 Texas Tech quarterbacks are ready to compete this fall likely woke up Sunday feeling more concerned than ever. Though there were a few decent moments, the three main competitors for the starting quarterback position, Jett Duffey, McLane Carter and Alan Bowman did little Saturday evening to suggest that Kliff Kingsbury has found an answer at quarterback.

The trio was a combined 29 of 46 passing for 304 yards,  Those are numbers that simply will not suffice come September.  Looking deeper into the stats, the quarterbacks averaged just 6.6 yards per attempt meaning, as a group they did most of their work on short, safe passes rather than pushing the ball downfield.

Most disappointing was the poor performance of the projected frontrunner Duffey.  On the night, the sophomore was 11-15 for just 89 yards.  He also threw zero touchdown passes and had an awful interception.

Duffey looked lethargic and lackadaisical when delivering the ball. Plus, he did not protect the ball the way we discussed we hoped to see in our spring game preview piece.

In the above play, Duffey makes an awful decision to throw the ball off his back foot while under heavy pressure.  As a result, he has no pace on the ball and it floats to corner Octavius Morgan for an easy interception.  (As an aside, wide receiver T.J. Vasher also needs to actually compete for the ball in this situation and try to keep Morgan from getting an easy pick.)

"“[Duffey has] got to understand you’re in that field position,” Kingsbury told the “Lubbock Avalanche-Journal”. “That’s a ball that’s got to be (caught by) us or nobody. They brought a blitz. He didn’t throw his hot (route), just took a shot to T.J., which I’m good with. But if you’re going to do that, it’s got to be us or nobody.”"

What is additionally concerning is that this was not Duffey’s first bad interception this spring.  In the Midland scrimmage, he threw an ill-advised interception at the goal line which was returned for a touchdown giving fans cause for concern over whether he is ready for a starting role.

Reports from those who have seen Duffey in closed practices suggested that he had separated himself from Carter and Bowman but his final showing of the Spring was troubling.  By no means does one bad scrimmage mean that Duffey is going to lose the lead in the QB race nor does it mean he will not be a good quarterback.

But the fans wanted to see something out of Duffey that would help them feel confident that the QB play will be better this fall than it was in 2017.  Fan confidence in Duffey is low following his off-field issues which include a two semester suspension from the university for a Title IX violation in 2016 and an arrest last month outside a Lubbock bar.

Those who have questioned his decision-making off the field also wonder about whether he can be trusted on Saturdays when facing live action.  Needless to say, their fears were not assuaged Saturday.

Granted, a scrimmage is not the ideal environment for Duffey to fully shine.  Quick whistles and cautious coaches wanting to shield quarterbacks from injury take what is perhaps Duffey’s greatest strength, his legs, out of the equation.  Like former Texas Tech QB Pat Mahomes, Duffey will not be able to truly be himself on the field until he is in an actual game meaning fans should understand that the Duffey we saw yesterday was not the real player we expect to see this fall.

While Duffey’s struggles were obvious, McLean Carter’s were a bit less obvious but were on display none-the-less.  At first glance, some may see his stat line (11-19, 139 yards and a touchdown) as decent.  However, his completion percentage was just 57% and the plays he did not make overshadowed the ones he did.

Carter continues to show that he lacks a Big 12 arm.  All of his completions were to wide-open receivers in the intermediate to short range.  If Carter had any completions over 20 yards, they were a result of yards after the reception gained by the receivers such as the touchdown pass below.

While those types of throws are important to the Texas Tech offense, they can’t be the entire offense.  As we saw in Carter’s first career start last season against Texas, Big 12 defenses will quickly take the short passing game away from him daring him to make throws outside the numbers and down field.  He simply can not do that as he showed on a number of missed opportunities during the spring game.

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Texas Tech’s best receivers this year are likely to be outside receivers T.J. Vasher and Quan Shorts.  If Carter doesn’t have the arm to get the ball to them down the field, he will not be able to execute the entire playbook.

As for true freshman Alan Bowman, he looked like a true freshman, albeit a good one.  He frequently looked slow in his reads despite the fact that he was only asked to execute only a portion of the offensive playbook.

As a result, he had a number of passes batted down, knocked away or contested by defenders.  Bowman did show that he has a fantastic arm, perhaps the best arm on campus, but he does not look ready to take the reins of the offense in a season as pivotal for Kingsbury and the Red Raiders as 2018 figures to be.

"“Overall, I’ve been pleased with the (quarterbacks’) operation,” Kingsbury said. “Now it’s just getting the nuances down, being comfortable in the system."

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If the Texas Tech quarterbacks are comfortable in the system and their head coach is confident and pleased with them following the spring game, then we must take him at his word.  However, that is a notion not very prevalent in the Red Raider fan base, especially after Saturday’s poor quarterback performances.

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