Texas Tech football: Three Arizona offensive weapons to be aware of
As the Texas Tech football team prepares to take on Arizona this week, here are three Wildcat offensive weapons Red Raider fans need to become familiar with.
Welcome to the beginning of the real Texas Tech football season. After taking on the younger sisters of the little sisters of the poor in the first two games, Matt Wells and his Red Raiders are finally about to be tested by a big boy football team.
This is where the rollercoaster that is the college football season truly begins. And our emotions will first be put to on life support by a tricky road test at Arizona.
The Wildcats have a football program that in many ways is in a similar place as the Red Raiders’ program is. Fighting to emerge from the crowded middle class of a Power 5 conference, both teams are in the early stages of a massive overhaul under new head coaches.
This is year two of the Kevin Sumlin era in Tucson. The former Houston and Texas A&M coach has seen his star dim quite a bit since he was the talk of the college football world in 2012 as he rode the back of Johnny Manziel to his career’s high-water mark.
The 55-year-old native of Alabama who used to fly around Texas in the A&M swagcopter to make a splash on the recruiting circuit has an impressive career record of 92-51 with seven bowl appearances. But despite going 51-26 in six years at Texas A&M, he was fired following the 2017 season after failing to produce a winning record in SEC play over his final five seasons in College Station.
He found refuge with an Arizona program that had just parted ways with another successful head coach who had also seen his once-rising stock begin to fall, Rich Rodriguez. In six years with the Cats, Rodriguez went 43-35 overall but just 24-30 in PAC 12 play leading to his ouster.
In his first campaign with Arizona, Sumlin had less than optimal results. Going just 5-7 in 2018, he suffered through his first losing season since 2010 when he put up the same record at Houston. Those are the only two losing seasons of his career.
Like so many head coaches at all levels of the game these days (including his former protegee Kliff Kingsbury who was his offensive coordinator at Texas A&M in 2012) Sumlin’s forte is coaching offense, especially quarterbacks. In addition to Manziel, he’s coached the likes of Sam Bradford and Case Keenum. He was also a graduate assistant at Washington State when Ryan Leaf was setting the PAC 10 on fire and the wide receivers coach at Purdue during the Drew Brees era.
Therefore, we are certain to see his team present the toughest test so far for the revamped Red Raider defense in 2019. In the first two games of the season, Tech’s opponents have attempted just 43 passes combined. That’s only four more than the Wildcats attempted in their first game of against Hawaii.
Overall, Sumlin’s offense ranks No. 6 in the nation with 629.5 yards per game. Through the air, the Cats’ 325 yards per game are good for 19th nationally.
Averaging over 51 points per game through two weeks, the Wildcats are going to push the Texas Tech defense for the first time under new defensive coordinator Keith Patterson. If the Red Raiders are going to come out of the desert with a key win in this non-conference showdown, they will have to keep these three Wildcat weapons in check.