Texas Tech Football: Why McLane Carter is not the popular choice for QB
He couldn’t beat out Nic Shimonek
In 2017, NIc Shimonek put together arguably the most pedestrian season of any “Air Raid” quarterback at Texas Tech. In fact, if you listed the modern era Texas Tech quarterbacks in order of greatness, Shimonek would undoubtedly be in the bottom two and would likely come in last.
Sure, Shimonek’s stats 3,963 yards 33 touchdowns and 10 interceptions were more than respectable but in the biggest moments Shimonek wilted. Time after time, he was unable to lead his team to key scores in close losses to Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Kansas State and in winnable games like the Iowa State and TCU games.
About half-way through the 2017 season, most Texas Tech fans knew that Shimonek was not up to par with the standard set by other Texas Tech quarterbacks. So what does that say about a player that could not beat him out for the job?
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Not only could Carter not take the starting job away from Shimonek, he was never even considered a viable challenger. All offseason, Kingsbury was steadfast in his stance that Shimonek was his unquestioned starter. In other words, he never considered Carter for the starting job.
The mindset was different when B.J. Symons started after playing behind Kliff Kingsbury or when Taylor Potts got his shot after backing up Graham Harrell. But Shimonek was not a great college quarterback and had there been a real star on the roster, Shimonek would not have been seen the field.
But Carter was only good enough to get one start, which he couldn’t even finish. That start only came after Shimonek hit rock-bottom in the loss to TCU, not because of anything Carter did.
So you will have to forgive the Texas Tech fans that are not excited about putting the 2018 season in the hands of a player that couldn’t win the job the previous year despite the fact that the team was in desperate need of an upgrade.