Texas Tech football: How 10 men contributed to decline of Red Raider football

Patrick Mahomes

Thus far, we have taken a look at how the egos, mistakes, and incompetence of several men have hurt the Texas Tech football program.  But let’s change gears and examine how the unexpected excellence of Patrick Mahomes led to some unforeseen challenges for the Red Raiders.

When Mahomes signed in the class of 2014, virtually no one expected him to take over the starting QB role by the end of the season.  And the thought that he would be in the NFL by 2017 was laughable.  In fact, the strong-armed two-sport athlete was considered by some a better baseball prospect than football when he came out of high school.

But 12,097 total yards and 115 touchdowns later, Mahomes was ready to leave school after his junior season leaving a huge and unexpected void in the Texas Tech football program.  Just consider how differently the last two years could have been had Mahomes’ career taken a more traditional approach.

Remember that when he arrived on campus, Davis Webb was entrenched as the starter.  And had Webb lived up to the promise that he showed as a freshman and held down the starting job for the remainder of his career, Mahomes may not have started until his senior season, which could have been 2017.  What’s more, if he would have redshirted as so many quarterbacks do, he could have been Tech’s starter last fall.

You could make an argument that the program’s biggest flaw in each of the past two seasons was mediocre to poor QB play.  In 2017, Tech had to turn to Nick Shimonek (who was not suited to be a top-level QB at a Power 5 school) and last year Kingsbury had to play musical chairs between Alan Bowman, Jett Duffey and McLane Carter as injures took all three down.

Frustratingly, by the time Kingsbury was able to field representative defenses, his offenses were hamstrung by deficiencies at the QB position and that is due largely by the departure of Mahomes.  No one faults Mahomes for heading to the NFL when he did.  Obviously, it was the correct decision.  And though it was what was best for him, his early jump to the NFL put Texas Tech in an unusual spot, searching for answers at the QB position.