Texas Tech Football: Position Groups That Will Be Better In 2018

The Texas Tech football team will enter the 2018 season with quite a few unanswered questions at a number of position groups.  Still, there are some units to be excited about. So let’s take a moment to look at which position groups should be improved this fall.

We have officially entered the worst time of year for college sports fans; the summer.  In the long, hot days between the end of the Texas Tech baseball season and the start of the Texas Tech football season, we are left with only social media hype videos, a smattering of recruiting tidbits and the obligatory offseason college football lists such as “Coaches on the Hot Seat” or “Top 10 QB’s in the Nation”.

So with that being said, here’s another bit of summer filler to pass the time.

There has been quite a bit of turnover on the Texas Tech football team this offseason, especially on offense.   Kliff Kingsbury enters the 2018 season with question marks at positions that have long been hallmarks of the Red Raider program (quarterback and receiver).

But there are also some position groups that are primed for big years.  Here’s a look at some of the positions at which Texas Tech should see an improvement this fall.

Placekicker

It isn’t until disaster strikes at the placekicker position that football fans stop taking kickers for granted.  Such was the case in 2017 when kicking woes plagued the Red Raiders all season long.

For the season, Tech converted an awful 52% of its field goal attempts.  That ranked No. 122 out of 130 teams in the country.

The main culprit was a summer camp leg injury suffered by pre-season all-Big 12 kicker Clayton Hatfield.  As a sophomore in 2016, Hatfield was good on 12 of 13 attempts for a 92.8% success rate.  But as injuries forced him to miss six games and nagged him throughout the rest of the season, he hit just 6 of 10 attempts.

In his absence, the other kickers on the roster, Michael Ewton, Michael Barden, and Matthew Cluck were woefully inadequate.  And the kicking failures cost Texas Tech two Big 12 games when makable field goals were missed against West Virginia (when Texas Tech was in a position to put the game virtually out of reach) and at home against Kansas State when a late chip-shot miss gave the Wildcats an opportunity to tie the game late in the 4th quarter.

But this year, the kicking should be drastically improved.  Mainly because Hatfield is healthy and was solid in spring practices.

The senior told the Avalanche-Journal that he is better prepared to be productive this year thanks to a change in his offseason conditioning that has him weighing 15-20 pounds less while helping him improve his flexibility.

"“I’m just staying lighter,” he said, “trying to get good motion back and feel good about movement has been the biggest thing.”"

If the Hatfield can show the form he displayed in his first two seasons when he was 27 of 30 on field goals, the Red Raiders could find life in close games far more pleasing this fall.