Texas Tech football: Players that have not met expectations through three games

After the first quarter of the Texas Tech football season, let’s take a moment to look at some of the Red Raiders that have yet to meet expectations in 2019.

Three games does not a season make.  But it is a big enough sample for Texas Tech football fans to formulate some opinions about the direction of the season and the performance of individual players.

As is the case every season, there are members of this year’s roster that have not had the start most expected of them.  That’s not to say that it means these players are doomed for a failure of a season but it is something worth watching.

Of course, expectations for this team were rather low entering the season so not much was expected of most of the players on the roster by those outside the program or the fan base.  After all, the only Red Raider on the preseason All-Big 12 offensive team was guard Jack Anderson and the only one on the all-defense team was safety Adrian Frye.

Thus far, neither has played at an all-conference level.  It is hard to judge Anderson as an individual given the nature of offensive line play, but that unit as a group was terribly disappointing in last week’s loss to Arizona and Anderson did miss the second game of the year with a slight knee injury.

Meanwhile, Frye is off to a bit of a slow start as well. Though he’s started all three games, he’s made just five tackles and has yet to be credited with a pass defense.  He did make three tackles against the Wildcats but he was also burned for a touchdown.  But given how well the secondary has played as a whole, it’s hard to heap too much criticism on any member of that group.

Then there are players who have not met expectations because of injury.  Senior receiver Seth Collins and senior defensive end Lonzell Gilmore both figured to have meaningful roles this year but neither has yet stepped foot on the field due to offseason injuries.

Both are expected back in the upcoming weeks.  Collins may be a boost to a young receiving corps that has struggled at times to beat man coverage and Gilmore might help the defensive line if in no other way than providing another player to add some depth to a position group that wore down in the fourth quarter in Tucson.

Speaking of Tucson, it was there that we got our first look at senior right tackle Terence Steele.  after missing the first two games of the season, he has to be considered a player who has had a disappointing start to his season simply by not being on the field for two games, thus ending a 38-game streak of starts that dated back to his first game as a Red Raider.  Though he looked a bit shaky at times and was flagged for holding, we can expect this stalwart of the offensive line to get better as the weeks go by provided that he is 100% healthy.

Unfortunately, there are some Red Raiders who can’t explain their slow starts by any other means than ineffective play.  Let’s take a look at the Red Raiders who have not met expectations thus far in 2019.