Following Saturday’s abysmal offensive showing in the Texas Tech football team’s 21-6 loss at Kansas State, many are saying that having to play Jett Duffey at QB is an excuse for the poor showing. Here’s why that is flawed logic.
There’s no question that the Texas Tech football team has been incredibly unfortunate in the injury department this year, especially at the quarterback position. But having to go with backup Jett Duffey for much of the season is no excuse, especially given the fact that Duffey was hand-picked by Kliff Kingsbury as his one-time quarterback of the future.
Though it is hard to believe after what we saw yesterday in the 21-6 loss to Kansas State in which Duffey threw for just 150 yards and had quarterback rating of just 17.1, he was one of the most highly-regarded quarterbacks to sign with Texas Tech in the “Air Raid” era.
Coming out of Mansfield, Texas, Duffey was a three-star prospect who was the Texas player of the year and a participant in the prestigious Nike Elite-11 quarterback competition. Consider how that compares to some former Texas Tech quarterbacks who went on to great careers.
In 2008, the Red Raiders inked another three-star dual-threat quarterback, Seth Doege. Rated just a few points lower than Duffey by 247Sports, (0.8726 for Duffey and 0.8606 for Doege) the former Wolforth, TX product went on to start for two seasons compiling 8,636 yards and 69 touchdowns with only 26 interceptions while completing 69% of his passes.
And before you point out that Duffey was away from football for two semesters in his first year on campus following a Title IX investigation, consider the misfortune Doege was dealt. After being one of the top high schools quarterbacks in the state in his sophomore season, he would tear a knee ligament before both his junior and senior seasons (the injuries occurred in a different knee each year) causing him to miss two full years of football.
Where as Duffey missed just over eight months, during which time he was able to work out on his own, Seth Doege missed 24 months and while he was out he was unable to do any football related activities. And still, he became a very effective college quarterback despite also undergoing a head coaching change during his time on campus.
Still other Texas Tech quarterbacks have had fantastic success despite being mere afterthoughts as recruits. After walking-on in 2000, former Red Raider Sunny Cumbie went on to one of the best seasons in program history throwing for 4,742 yards and 32 touchdowns and guiding his team to a Holiday Bowl win over Aaron Rogers and No. 4 Cal.
While Kingsbury apologists continue to hang on to this year’s quarterback injuries as excuses, we can remember when Mike Leach was able to get far more out of players like Cumbie, Cody Hodges and even a former walk-on who was pressed into duty in a backup role just like Duffey. In 2009, Steven “Sticks” Sheffield had to take over the offense in a 7-7 game against New Mexico after Taylor Potts suffered a concussion.
Sheffield would lead the team to a 49-28 win over the Lobos and back-to-back Big 12 wins over Kansas State and Nebraska in the following two games. Unfortunately, a broken foot would end his season but what “Sticks” did as a backup in 2009 was proof that backup quarterbacks are fully capable of playing well and should be expected to produce regardless of what unfortunate circumstances lead their insertion into the game.
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If the 2018 season has gone off the rails because of an injury to Alan Bowman, that is not an excuse for Kingsbury but rather an indictment of his inability to coach up a former highly-regarded recruit over the course of his three years on campus. And those in the camp that say Duffey simply does not have what it takes between the ears to operate the offense must ask themselves why Kingsbury decided to bring him into the program to begin with.
What’s more, Kingsbury followed that decision up with another poor decision when recruiting the next quarterback after Duffey. In 2017, San Antonio area QB Xavier Martin signed with Texas Tech only to move to receiver in his first spring on campus further depleting the program’s QB depth and resulting in the addition of Nic Shimonek and McLane Carter as transfers to help replenish a position left thin when Pat Mahomes left for the NFL a year early.
Kliff Kingsbury is a fantastic quarterback coach. There’s no denying that. The work he did with players like Mahomes, Davis Webb, Johnny Manziel and Case Keenum speaks for itself.
But the 2018 quarterback injuries, while less than ideal, should not have led to this team’s total collapse in the second half of the season. Jett Duffey is not good enough and ultimately, that is Kingsbury’s fault.
He has had three years to mold Duffey into a quality QB and he has not been able to do so. And if Duffey is simply incapable of ever being that kind of player, he should not have been taking up a scholarship for the last three seasons.
The injuries at QB this year are not Kingsbury’s fault. But his inability to find a way to win in spite of them most certainly are. Every coach is going to have to deal wit injuries at some point. The good ones find a way to overcome them. The bad ones produce what we saw yesterday in Manhattan, Kansas.