Texas Tech football: Breaking down Jett Duffey vs. Jackson Tyner

Jett Duffey: High risk, high reward

Let’s turn our attention to the known quantity in this backup QB tandem.  Junior Jett Duffey has played enough that we know he’s a player with the ability to make spectacular plays but who also has a frustrating propensity for making back-breaking mistakes.

Last season was the first time he played any meaningful football for the Red Raiders.  Beginning the year as the third-string QB, he found himself thrust into the starting job by the season’s sixth game at TCU thanks to injuries to Alan Bowman and McLane Carter.  It would be one of three starts he made last year and the only one he would win.

In all, he saw action in seven games throwing for 1,221 yards and 8 touchdowns with six interceptions.  He also led the Red Raiders in rushing with 369 yards while also finding the endzone four times on the ground.

It’s that aspect of his game that has had Tech fans so fascinated with him since he signed with the program out of high school.  We have not seen a Red Raider QB in the modern era of the program that could run like Duffey (Mahomes was very mobile but he scrambled behind the line to buy more time to throw rather than trying to run for yards).

But for years, we’ve seen Tech beguiled by running QBs like Iowa State’s Senaca Wallace, (who had one of the most unreal scrambles in Big 12 history against Tech in 2006), Texas’ Vince Young (who ran for 256 total yards and four touchdowns in three career games against the Red Raiders), or Robert Griffin III from Baylor (who ran for a combined 179 yards and six touchdowns in three meetings with Tech).  So it was natural to be excited about the thought of being on the other end of that equation.

The problem is that Duffey has to throw the ball as well and when it does, it often goes to the guys in the wrong colored jerseys.  For his career, he’s averaged one interception for every 26 pass attempts.  That’s a number well below acceptable.

Outside of that, he’s been a decent enough passer to survive in the Big 12.  He’s completed 68.2% of his passes with a passing efficiency rating of 143.7, which is virtually the same As Alan Bowman’s (143.6).

We saw the Jekyll and Hyde nature of his game last year.  In his two starts at TCU and Kansas State, he completed 61.4% of his passes but for only an average of 170 yards.  What’s more, he threw only one TD pass but was picked off a combined three times in those games.  (It must be noted that he was playing on a torn meniscus against Kansas State, limiting his ability to get much on his passes and eliminating any hope of using his legs to run.)

But against Texas, he was fantastic.  He connected on 37 of 47 passes (78.7%) for 444 yards, four touchdowns, and only one pick.  Additionally, he ran for 80 more yards bringing his total offense output to 524 yards.  That’s a dog that will hunt every day of the week.

However, college football coaches like certainty and that’s not something that comes in the Jett Duffey kit.  He’s a player that’s just as likely to lose the game with his arm (or more accurately his decision-making) as he is to win it with his legs.  That’s why it’s been so tough for him to earn any consistent playing time at Tech despite arriving as the most decorated QB recruit the program had signed since perhaps Graham Harrell.