As our anticipation for the 2019 Texas Tech football season continues to slowly increase, let’s take a look at the position groups that should be improved this fall.
There are 75 days until the 2019 Texas Tech football season is set to begin with a home game against this year’s FCS sacrificial lamb Montana State. But given the success of the Texas Tech basketball, track and field and baseball teams this spring, it doesn’t feel like the anticipation for the next round of Red Raider football is as high as in seasons past.
And it is easy to understand why. While we have had a taste of success at the highest levels in other sports, the football team has fallen victim to the What have you done for me lately? mentality that permeates our society these days.
In fact, an entire generation of Red Raider fans has gone through their formative years of sports fandom knowing Tech football to be nothing but a fledgling afterthought of a program. The last time the Texas Tech football team was relevant nationally, the freshmen set to enroll at Tech this year were just eight years old.
That is not how you grow a fan base. But there is a cure for this fan apathy…winning.
However, Many wonder if Matt Wells is the man to finally bring winning football back to Lubbock. On one hand, he did amass a 44-34 record in six seasons at Utah State, which was at one time a wasteland on the college football landscape. But on the other hand, he went through a stretch of three-consecutive losing seasons from 2015-17, which was the same transgression that got Kliff Kingsbury fired in Lubbock.
But Wells has impressed many with his leadership and demeanor in his first seven months at the helm. And Tech fans are hoping that his attention to detail will lead to an improvement in the culture and maturity of the football program.
The good news for Wells is that his roster is not devoid of talent. In fact, a case could be made that he has the best QB in the conference in Alan Bowman. What’s more, he’s inherited a team that is returning seven starters on offense and six on defense.
But regardless of how experienced or talented the roster may be, Wells knows that his team has to improve across the board if they are to return to relevance in the Big 12. The hope is that each and every position group will take a step forward this year but such a best case scenario is unlikely to unfold. Still, let’s take a look at the positions where it would seem logical to expect the Red Raiders to improve significantly this year.