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Texas Tech football: These players must be better in 2019

By Matthew Conner

HOUSTON, TX - SEPTEMBER 01: A.J. Brown #1 of the Mississippi Rebels catches a pass behid Justus Parker #31 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders and runs in for a 34 yard score in the fourth quarter at NRG Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TX - SEPTEMBER 01: A.J. Brown #1 of the Mississippi Rebels catches a pass behid Justus Parker #31 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders and runs in for a 34 yard score in the fourth quarter at NRG Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
(Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

DE – Eli Howard

In football, not all of the onus for stopping the pass falls on the shoulders of the secondary.  After all, if the defensive line can put consistent pressure on the QB, it makes life much easier on the defensive backs.

Last year, Tech was actually pretty adept at getting to the passer ranking 50th in the country with 2.33 sacks per game.  That’s the good news.

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The bad news is that the players that accounted for 12 of last year’s 25 total sacks are no longer with with program.  That includes the two top pass rushers Kolin Hill and Tony Jones.

Thus, defensive end Eli Howard is the team’s top returning sack artist.  But last year, he registered just 3.5, which was two fewer than he had in 2017.

Part of that could have been just poor luck.  According to Howard’s bio page on Tech’s official website, he had nine QB pressures last year, which was up from six the previous season.  Sometimes, pressures can be as disruptive as sacks but regardless, Tech needs Howards to be even more of a pest to opposing QB’s this year.

That’s because there are no other defensive linemen on the roster with as many as two career sacks.  So it would seem like Tech’s best bet for producing a standout pass rusher is Howard.

It would not be surprising to see the San Angelo native thrive in Keith Patterson’s defense.  The new Red Raider DC has a reputation for being a coach that brings tons of pressure and in 2015, his Arizona State defense led the nation in sacks with 3.54 per game.

One key may be to keep Howard fresh as the season progresses because he has typically seen his productivity decline towards the back end of the schedule.  Last year, he had no sacks in either October or November and in 2017 he had just one sack in the final four games of the season.

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Given that Patterson is going to bring pressure from all over the field, we shouldn’t expect just one or two players to carry the pass rush responsibility as in a conventional defense.  Still, Tech needs Howard to become the true leader on the defensive line and provide his team with consistent pressure off the edge.

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