Texas Tech football: The all-time Red Raider team from the rest of Texas
DB: Cody Davis, Damarcus Fields, Derrick Mays, Tate Randle
In the rest of Texas secondary, the Red Raiders would be led by Cody Davis from Stephenville. One of the best tackling safeties in the modern era of the program, he was credited with 362 takedowns in his career, which spanned from 2009-2012.
The 8th-leading tackler in program history also came up with four interceptions, three in his senior season. He was a freshman All-American in 2009 after amassing 81 tackles and he earned second-team All-Big 12 in his final season as a Red Raider.
From 1978-81, Tate Randle from Fredericksburg had two All-SWC seasons at safety. His 14 career interceptions still rank tied for 3rd-most in Tech history and the six he had in 1979 are tied for the seventh-most in a season at Tech.
Current Texas Tech corner Damarcus Fields from Taylor would be on this roster as well. Entering his junior year, he has made 89 tackles while picking off a pass (which he took back 96 yards for a score against Oklahoma State in 2017), forcing three fumbles and recovering two. He has started 23 of the 25 games of his career earning honorable mention All-Big 12 recognition in 2018.
Unfortunately for this roster, finding another quality corner has proven tough. Searching back all the way through the 1999 season, the best option I came up with was Derrick Mays from Killeen.
From 2010-13 he made 50 tackles. The 5-foot-11, 175-pounder had just 12 career starts and was credited with only four pass defenses and failed to pick off a pass in four seasons. If there are better options for this list from earlier editions of Red Raider football, I was unable to find them given how surprisingly difficult it is to find archived Texas Tech stats from prior to the turn of this century.
It would be frightening for this team to have to line up against some of the other all-time teams we’ve looked at in recent days knowing Mays had to cover receivers like Michael Crabtree, Joel Filani, or Jarrett Hicks. But with two excellent safeties and a productive player at the other corner, this team might be able to cover for its biggest weakness.