Texas Tech football: 3 OSU defensive players Tech must contend with

Corner A.J. Green was the Cowboys’ only preseason All-Big 12 defensive selection

In the Oklahoma State secondary, senior corner A.J. Green is a potential NFL Draft pick.  At 6-foot-1, he has the size that scouts at the next level covet and that has made him a very good DB in the Big 12.

In 2018, he was tied for 5th in the conference with 12 pass defenses.   That included an interception of Alan Bowman in Tech’s 41-17 win in Stillwater last year.  It was Green’s only pick of the season.

But this year, he has already picked off a pass, which he took 27 yards to the endzone against McNeese. What’s more, he’s proven to be a ball-hawk with six career interceptions, including 4 in 2017.

This year, Green is on pace to possibly top his career-high for tackles in a season, 49.  With 21 tackles through five games, he’s on pace for his best season to date.

This is the player that OSU likes to assign to the opposition’s top receiver.  That means he and T.J. Vasher will see quite a bit of eachother on Saturday.  It will be interesting to see if Vasher can exploit his four-inch height advantage against one of the conference’s biggest and most physical corners.

This year, Vasher has yet to take over a game.  It isn’t that he’s been bad.  He’s on pace for a career-high 744 yards but Tech needs more from him.

Against Arizona, the junior had a season-high 96 yards but last week, he caught just one pass for two yards.  Again, that was likely as much of a product of the poor QB play the Red Raiders received in Norman as it was Vahser’s inability to make plays.

Still, Vasher has to be at his best this week.  Against one of the better corners in the conference, Tech needs its best receiver to make life easier on Jett Duffey by being the go-to option that every backup QB needs to know he can rely on.