Texas Tech football: Players to watch against UTEP

TE Travis Koontz

One of the most talked-about newcomers this offseason was JUCO tight end, Travis Koontz.  The No. 3 JUCO TE in the nation was expected to be Tech’s first true TE of the 21st century but he was beaten out for the starting job by senior Donta Thompson, a converted wide receiver.

Still, there remain high expectations for Koontz who at 250-pounds can run well enough to be a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses.  Tonight, it would not be surprising to see the Ohio native show up in a bigger way than he did last week.

In his debut, Koontz had just two receptions for 19 yards with a long of 13.  But just as we think that the week-one production of the “Y” receivers may help Ezukanma, the same could be said of Koontz and Thompson.

Right now, it feels like Thompson is the better blocker of the two while Koontz is the better receiver (which is somewhat surprising given that Thompson was an outside receiver for most of his time as a Red Raider).  Of course, we saw how Thompson can have a huge impact on the ground game on the 69-yard Armand Shyne TD run against Montana State but expect this position to be a bit more of a feature in the passing game against UTEP.

For OC David Yost’s offense to function at its best, the tight ends have to be feared receivers.  That’s what happened last year when Utah State TE Dax Raymond had an all-conference season on his way to earning a training camp spot with the Chicago Bears in 2019.

We need to see the tight ends create mismatches in the passing game so that the offense has balance in regards to which side of the formation the defense is most concerned with.  That could begin to take shape tonight and if so, don’t be surprised to hear Travis Koontz’s name more than we did in his Red Raider debut.