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Texas Tech football: What we still don’t know about the Red Raiders

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 07: Running back Armand Shyne #5 of Texas Tech runs with the ball while being pursued by safety Justin Prince #21 of UTEP during the second half of the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the UTEP Miners at Jones AT&T Stadium on September 07, 2019 in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 07: Running back Armand Shyne #5 of Texas Tech runs with the ball while being pursued by safety Justin Prince #21 of UTEP during the second half of the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the UTEP Miners at Jones AT&T Stadium on September 07, 2019 in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
(Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

Is this secondary capable of holding up against capable passing attacks?

This year, the Texas Tech secondary has been rebuilt on the fly.  After a 2018 season that saw the program rank second-to-last in the country against the pass, the Red Raiders lost both starting safeties making the secondary an area of concern during the offseason.

Therefore, DC Keith Patterson and his defensive assistants shuffled the deck by moving corners Adrian Frye and Douglas Coleman to safety and bringing in new faces in grad transfers Zech McPhearson and Ja’Marcus Ingram.

Thus far, the overhauled back end of the defense has been largely unchallenged.  That’s because Tech’s first two opponents have viewed the forward pass as a terrifying proposition that is akin to playing with lit fireworks.

Montana State attempted a mere 24 passes, completing just 12 of them for 162 yards and one TD.  Not to be outdone, UTEP put the ball in the air only 19 times, completing just seven passes for 54 yards.  That’s only seven more completed passes than the first-ever college football game in 1869 featured, 37 years prior to the first legal forward pass in the history of college football.

So to say that Tech’s secondary has been untested is a bit of an understatement.  That should change this week.

The Cats have averaged 325 yards per game through the air in 2019.  Against Hawaii, they put up 361 and in week two they had 289.   And QB Khalil Tate has thrown five touchdown passes this season which means he is far more of a threat with his arm than any player Tech has faced to this point.

At times, we’ve seen some breakdowns in the Tech secondary, which is to be expected of a group that has been overhauled so thoroughly.  Most notably was the mixup against Montana State that led to the only touchdown the Red Raiders have surrendered this year when Coleman and Frye appeared to be on different pages allowing an MSU receiver to get behind them for an easy score.

This week, that duo and the rest of their colleagues in the defensive backfield must avoid such breakdowns.  Arizona has seven players with at least 50 receiving yards this season and seven players that have TD receptions.  How Tech’s secondary combats this dangerous passing attack will be one of the most important factors when the Red Raiders face the season’s first test on Saturday night.

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