Texas Tech football players that could be All-Big 12 at season’s end
After the release of the preseason All-Big 12 teams, let’s take a look at some Red Raiders that did not make the cut who but could be all-conference selections after this season.
Another sign that the college football season is slowly drawing near is the annual release of the preseason All-Big 12 teams. Released earlier this week, that group of players includes only two Red Raiders.
The first is offensive lineman Jack Anderson. The junior from Frisco, Texas will be a three-year starter this season having started all 25 of his games as a Red Raider.
The 2017 Freshman All-American earned second-team all-conference honors last year and looks to be the anchor of a Red Raider offensive line that returns four starters. What will be interesting to see is how the new coaching staff decides to utilize their best offensive lineman.
Thus far, Anderson has played exclusively at right tackle where he has become a top NFL prospect (some even predict he could go as high as the second round next year should he forego his senior season) However, there is the possibility that he could move to center if Tech can’t find another player capable of replacing 2018 starter Paul Stawarz.
Regardless of where Matt Wells and his staff decide to play Anderson, he is a rather safe bet to be on the postseason All-Big 12 team as well. And like Anderson, the other Red Raider to earn preseason All-Big 12 honors finished last season as an all-conference selection.
On the other side of the ball, sophomore corner Adrian Frye exploded on the scene last fall to lead the Red Raiders with five interceptions despite starting just four games. As a redshirt freshman, the Houston native was credited with 21 tackles and 13 pass breakups.
However, there is less certainty that he will end up on the postseason all-conference team this year. That is because interceptions (and turnovers in general) are rather random at times and it would be difficult to imagine Frye coming down with five more picks in 2019.
Though he could have more passes defended and play a larger role this fall, if Frye does not have another big year in regards to picking the ball off, he could be passed over for postseason honors by players that have a big year in that regard. Considering that if he pulled in another five interceptions this season, he would already be tied for 7th in program history with three other players after only two years of his career, it seems unlikely that Frye will have the same fortune this year as he did last season.
That’s what happened last year to defensive back Justus Parker, who was preseason all-Big 12 after picking off four passes, forcing four fumbles and recovering one of those (which he took to the end zone against Kansas) in 2017 as a sophomore. But as a junior, he recorded 19 fewer tackles and did not pick off a pass or recover a fumble while forcing just one.
Likewise in 2018, safety Jah’Shawn Johnson earned only honorable mention All-Big 12 recognition after being a preseason all-conference selection. That was mostly due to the fact that he saw his season cut to just eight games as a preseason shoulder surgery caused him to miss the first four weeks.
In fact, the only Red Raider to be on both the preseason and postseason all-conference teams was Dakota Allen. The linebacker finished the year with 73 tackles (6.5 for a loss) in eleven games, which was actually a down year for him being 14 fewer tackles than his previous career-low and 29 fewer than he registered in 2017.
On the other hand, a number of Red Raiders surprised last season to earn all-conference nods after not being honored prior to the season. While Anderson was one of those players, the most surprising was wide receiver Antoine Wesley.
Starting for the first time in his career, he put up 1,410 yards (third-most in a season in Texas Tech history) and nine touchdowns while earning recognition as a Biletnikoff Award semifinalist. Entering the year with only ten career receptions, Wesley topped that by 78 in 2018 before he left Tech early for the NFL.
Like Frye, Wesley came from nowhere to become one of the best players in the conference last year. So there’s no reason to believe that another overlooked Red Raider could do the same in 2019. Let’s take a look at some members of this year’s team that could wind up being All-Big 12 by season’s end.