Texas Tech football: Red Raiders land 5 on All-Big 12 teams

The Texas Tech football team has landed five players on the All-Big 12 teams which were announced Wednesday.

While every Red Raider fan is consumed with the 2018 coaching search, many would like to forget the recently concluded 5-7 season that cost Kliff Kingsbury his job. But five Texas Tech football players had seasons to remember and were named as All-Big 12 selections on Wednesday.

Senior linebacker Dakota Allen, senior place kicker Clayton Hatfield and redshirt freshman corner Adrian Frye were all named to the the first-team while junior wide receiver Antoine Wesley and sophomore guard Jack Anderson earned second-team recognition.

Allen wrapped up his career as one of the most inspiring and popular players in recent program history. After returning from a year at East Mississippi C.C. and staring on Last Chance U, Allen proved to be the best linebacker we have seen in Lubbock since Zach Thomas.

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Despite being slowed over the final moth of the season by nagging injuries including a broken hand, Allen was second on the team with 73 tackles. He finishes his career with 262 total tackles, an average of 87.3 per year. He was a second-team all-conference selection last year and an academic All-Big 12 first team selection as a freshman in 2015.

Hatfield rebounded from an injury-plagued junior campaign to once again become the top kicker in the Big 12. He ranked 5th in the nation with a 85.9% success rate on field goal attempts this year making 17 of 19 tries to bring his career total to a school record 50 (which ties Ryan Bustin).

Frye was the surprise breakout star of the defense this year. His five interceptions were the most of any Big 12 player in the regular season. Had it not been for a preseason knee injury to starting corner Octavious Morgan, Frye might not have had an opportunity to see the field this year but he certainly made the most of his chance.

What is puzzling though is how Wesley, who led the Big 12 in receiving yards and receptions could be left off of the first-team. Three receivers, Marquise Brown of OU, Tylan Wallace of OSU and David Sills of West Virginia made the first team despite having worse statistics than Wesley.

The one that stands out from that group is Sills who is only 35th in the nation in receiving yards (compared to Wesley who is second) trailing Wesley by a whopping 514 yards. Sills does have a 15-9 advantage over Wesley in touchdown receptions but many thought that Sills underperformed this year given what expectations were for him entering the season.

What’s more, Sills had the luxury of playing with a Heisman Trophy candidate at QB all season in Will Grier (second-team All-Big 12) while Wesley had three different starting quarterbacks. But perhaps the voters did not want to reward a 5-7 team with another first-team selection.

Meanwhile, Alan Bowman was named the offensive Freshman of the Year while eleven Red Raiders earned honorable mention recognition. Of those, only four (safety Jah’Shawn Johnson, punter Dominic Panazzolo, safety Vaughnte Dorsey and kick returner De’Quan Bowman) are seniors meaning that Texas Tech could have and even greater representation on next year’s all-conference teams.