Texas Tech football: Maddening recent history of QB injuries continues

Kliff Kingsbury has to shuffle QBs in his first season

Kliff Kingsbury had quite the challenge with QB injuries in his first season as a college head coach back in 2013.  And his troubles began before the season even kicked off.

Presumed starting QB Michael Brewer sustained a back injury while wakeboarding over the summer meaning that a pair of true freshmen, Davis Webb and Baker Mayfield, had to compete for the starting job.  When a late summer illness caused Webb to be hospitalized, during which time he lost a significant amount of weight, the walk-on Mayfield became the starter.

He played well in leading Tech to wins over SMU and Stephen F. Austin to being the season but against TCU, he went down with a knee injury.  Webb came off the bench to toss the game-winning TD as the Red Raiders took down the No. 24 Horned Frogs in Lubbock.

Mayfield returned the next week against Texas State but was benched in the second quarter in favor of Webb who threw for 310 yards and two scores.  Mayfield started again in game five against Kansas but left in the 3rd quarter after sustaining another knee injury.

Webb started the next four games going 2-2 but he was benched in the second quarter of the Kansas State game in favor of Mayfield who would start the final two games of the regular season.  Needless to say, that type of QB chaos was not what the 34-year-old Kingsbury needed in his first year as a head coach at any level of competition.

The fact that Tech managed to win eight games that season including the Holiday Bowl over Arizona State was nothing short of remarkable.  By juggling two true freshman QBs all season, Kingsbury furthered his growing reputation as one of the nation’s top developers of QB talent.