Texas Tech football: Where has the ground game gone?

After showing promising signs to begin the season, the Texas Tech ground game has begun to dissipate in recent weeks.

This offseason, Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury brought in new offensive coordinator Kevin Johns in large part because of his reputation as an innovator when it comes to running the football in the spread offense. In 2015, when Johns was coordinating the Indiana offense, the Hoosiers became the fourth FBS team ever to produce a 3,500-yard passer and two 1,000-yard rushers.

And early in the season, it appeared that the influence of the new OC was paying immediate dividends. Despite being hit with injuries to Da’Leon Ward, Tre King and Demarcus Felton, the Red Raider ground game was noticeably improved over a season ago.

At first glance, the Red Raider ground game appears to be healthy ranking 4th in the Big 12 with an average of 168.9 yards per game. That is an improvement of 28 yards per game from last year when Tech finished 6th in the league.

But those numbers are a bit deceiving. Considering that Texas Tech has run the ball more than any Big 12 team (297 times), Tech should rank higher in rushing offense. However, it is averaging fewer yards per rush (4.0) than all but Texas (3.9) and Iowa State (3.7).

And for the last three games, a troubling decline in the production from the running back position has been noticeable. In each of the Red Raiders first three games against FBS teams (the Lamar game was too lopsided to be included in any discussion because it skewed the stats unfairly), Tech had a running back amass at least 90 yards.

Da’Leon Ward was very good against Ole Miss in week one running for 90 yards and two touchdowns in his first game since 2016. True freshman Ta’Zhawn Henry came up big with 111 yards and four touchdowns against Houston and Demarcus Felton broke out for 130 yards and two touchdowns against Oklahoma State.

But starting with the West Virginia game, the Texas Tech running backs have started to have less of an impact on games. In the last three games, the most a Texas Tech running back has racked up in a game is the 62 yards Henry had against Kansas on Saturday.

What’s more, the running backs are not finding the end zone as often as they were to begin the season. Since the Oklahoma State game, Tech’s running backs have found the end zone only four times as opposed to nine times in the season’s first three games against FBS teams.

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In fact, an argument could be made that backup quarterback Jett Duffey has been Texas Tech’s best running back in recent weeks. The sophomore led the team on the ground in both the West Virginia game (86 yards) and the TCU game (83 yards). And during that time, he has run for just one fewer touchdown than all of the running backs combined.

But to be fair, Duffey’s limitations as a passer could be partly responsible. Knowing that the Texas Tech offense would be limited through the air with Duffey at the helm, opposing defenses keyed on stopping the Red Raider ground game and making Duffey beat them with his arm.

Now, Alan Bowman is back from injury forcing defenses to respect the aerial ability of the Red Raiders. Thus, it is time for the running backs to once again be significant contributors because Bowman is not a QB that will chew up yards with his feet.

What’s more, it will be essential for the Red Raiders to have balance this week against a very good Iowa State defense. ISU leads the Big 12 in rushing defense allowing just 110 yards per game. That is 16th best in the entire nation. And the most ISU has allowed any running back to run for was 74 yards by Oklahoma’s Trey Sermon.

The task facing Texas Tech’s running backs this week will be tough. Though the ISU defense features only three down linemen and drops eight men into coverage, it is effective in stopping the run because its linebackers and safeties are far enough away from the line that they can read the play and build up a head of steam before lumbering offensive linemen can get to the second level to make their blocks.

Therefore, it might be tough to expect Tech to have success with a conventional running attack this week. Where Tech could attack the Cyclones is on the edges of the defense with a player like Henry getting behind some pulling linemen. Also, the play-action game will be key in keeping the Iowa State linebackers off balance.

This is the type of game that Kingsbury hired Kevin Johns for because in each of the past two seasons, ISU has put the clamps on Kingsbury’s offense. Hopefully, this will be the week that the Red Raider ground game reestablishes itself.