Texas Tech football: Areas of disappointment thus far in 2019

Veteran offensive line has not been as good as it was billed to be

Sometimes we get trapped by linear thinking.  In other words, we often assume that players are going to get better every year just because they are gaining experience.  But the truth is that player development does not go in a straight linear path upwards.

Because the Texas Tech 2019 offensive line returned four starters and was starting four upperclassmen, it was being billed as one of the strengths of the offense.  We should have known better after what we saw from this group last year.

When Bowman went out, this line was incapable of picking up the slack in the rushing game.  In all, Tech averaged just 105.7 yards per game on the ground in the four full games Bowman missed a year ago.  That was down from the 146 yards the team averaged in the other eight games, which included two 200-yard rushing days.

Some of that may be attributed to the defenses not fearing the passing game as greatly as they did when Bowman was in the lineup.  But considering that Bowman’s backup, Jett Duffey greatly aided the offense’s rushing numbers with his improvisational skills on the ground, Tech should have had better success on the ground down the stretch in 2018.

Thus far, the Red Raiders are not rushing the ball the way we were led to believe they would under Wells and OC David Yost.  At 167.3 yards per game on the ground, Tech ranks just 8th in the Big 12.

Some of that has been due to Yost’s play-calling, which has been heavily slanted towards the passing game despite what his history suggested he would do.  So far, Tech’s thrown the ball 158 times and rushed it just 95.  Last year at Utah State, Yost threw the ball 465 times and ran it 480 times.

But regardless of whether it’s on the ground or in pass blocking, this line needs to play to its paper.  It was easily beaten all night by an Arizona defense that typically brought only three rushers.  And it is paving the way for just the 7th-best yards per carry average in the Big 12 (5.3).

Moving forward without Bowman, this unit that boasts a combined 131 career starts among the starting five has to be much better in all aspects of the game.  Of course, we may be learning that just because an underperforming position group is a year older, it isn’t necessarily any better.