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Texas Tech football: Maddening recent history of QB injuries continues

By Matthew Conner

HOUSTON, TX - SEPTEMBER 01: McLane Carter #6 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders is helped off the field by medical staff after sustaining a leg injury in the first quarter Mississippi Rebels at NRG Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TX - SEPTEMBER 01: McLane Carter #6 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders is helped off the field by medical staff after sustaining a leg injury in the first quarter Mississippi Rebels at NRG Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /

For the second-straight year, the Texas Tech football team will be without Alan Bowman for multiple weeks continuing the program’s poor luck with QB injuries over the last decade.

When the Texas Tech football team next takes the field a week from Saturday in Norman, it will be in the all-too-familiar position of having to rely on its backup QB.  The shoulder injury that sophomore Alan Bowman suffered in the second half of Saturday’s loss to Arizona will keep him sidelined for at least several weeks and could cost him the remainder of the season meaning that he will not be able to put together a full season in either of his first two collegiate campaigns.

But this is not the first significant QB injury for Matt Wells’ team already in 2019.  In the second intrasquad scrimmage last month, true freshman Maverick McIvor broke a bone in his foot keeping him out until November at the earliest.

The San Angelo native had already worked his way into the mix for the backup QB job and likely would be the man moving forward if he were healthy.  This also marks his second-straight season cut short by injury after he suffered torn knee ligaments in the first game of his senior season of high school last fall.

But Tech isn’t the only current member the college football starting QB injury club.  Already this year, some high profile programs have lost their QB 1 for the season.

In week one, USC lost sophomore J.T. Daniels to a knee injury.  Coming off a 2,672-yard, 14-touchdown season, he was considered one of the top sophomore passers in the country but his second season was cut short after attempting just 35 passes.

Likewise, Florida has had to face the reality of life without its starting QB after junior Feleipe Franks went down with a dislocated ankle in Saturday’s victory over Kentucky.  Franks was off to a fantastic start with 698 yards and five touchdowns and a completion percentage of 76.1% for the No. 9 Gators.

Certainly, Bowman means as much to Tech as those players mean to their programs and you could argue that he means even more given how little there is behind him in the way of proven commodities and overall talent.

At 1,020 yards, he is No. 4 in the nation and No. 1 in the Big 12 in passing.  With him leading the way, Tech would have gone into any game with as much talent at the QB position as any of their opponents would have had.

Now, you could argue that Tech will almost certainly be facing a deficit at that spot in the Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Iowa State, and Texas games.  And in the rest of the games, the huge advantage Tech would have had at QB is no more.

But this is not the first time we’ve seen a QB injury derail a Texas Tech football season.  In fact, an alarming number of similar instances have occurred in the last decade. Let’s take a look back at Tech’s amazing misfortune with QB injuries since the program peaked in 2008.

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