Texas Tech football: All-time West Texas Red Raider team

DL: Don Rives, Devin Lemons, Eli Howard, Calvin Riggs

Along the defensive front, the West Texas team would have players from several different eras of the program.  With Don Rives, Devin Lemons, Calvin Riggs, and Eli Howard, this roster would have an aggressive and relentless group of pass rushers.

Rives from tiny Wheeler (east of Pampa) was a standout defensive tackle in Lubbock from 1970-72.  He earned second-team All-American honors in his senior season before a five-year career playing linebacker for the Chicago Bears.

Converting to defensive end from full back shortly after he arrived from Midland, Riggs set a Tech record with 18.5 career sacks from 1983-86.  His 10.5 sacks in his senior season rank 7th in program history.

6-foot-3, 222-pound defensive end Devin Lemons from Pama would help get after the QB as well.  After his career in Lubbock from 1997-2000, he spent time in the NFL with the Washington Redskins and Chicago Bears.

Rounding out the front four is Eli Howard from San Angelo.  Currently a junior for the Red Raiders, he has 8.5 career sacks after transferring to Tech from North Texas.  The 6-foot-4, 275-pounder has earned honorable mention All-Big 12 recognition in each of the past two seasons.

This is a defensive-end heavy group so to add some meat, you could turn to Fred Thwreatt from Midland.  From 2001-05, the 330-pounder came up with 57 tackles for the Red Raiders.

Howard is the only West Texan defensive lineman on the current roster.  In 2018, Midland native Taylor Nunez who suited up for the Red Raiders from 2014-17.  There has not been a ton of impact defensive linemen to come from West Texas in the last couple of decades which makes sense given the higher volume of lower classification schools that populate the area.  Still, Tech has been able to identify good linemen as they crop up and bring them into the fold.