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Texas Tech football: 3 problems facing Red Raider offense

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - OCTOBER 05: Wide receiver KeSean Carter #82 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders catches a touchdown pass during the first half of the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Oklahoma State Cowboys on October 05, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - OCTOBER 05: Wide receiver KeSean Carter #82 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders catches a touchdown pass during the first half of the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Oklahoma State Cowboys on October 05, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /

The QBs on the roster are not perfect fits for this scheme

When the triggermen running an offense are not equipped to do everything that offense is designed to do, it would only seem to make sense that there will be some bumps in the road.  Certainly, that appears to be the case for the Red Raiders this year.

Neither Alan Bowman nor Jett Duffey has the skillset needed to do everything Yost wants his QBs to do in his offense.  Bowman does not have the mobility to be a threat to run and Duffey simply can’t be trusted to throw the football to every part of the field.

The reality of the situation is that the Red Raiders have been trying to mold the offense around the limitations of each QB, which is obviously going to put some restrictions on what the coaching staff wants to do.  For years, we’ve seen defensive coordinators struggle while at Tech because they lacked the personnel to run their desired scheme but it is odd to see those struggles change sides of the ball this year.

But remember, this is essentially the first time in 20 years that we have seen Tech try to implement an offense that is not some derivative of the “Air Raid”.   Though Yost operates out of the spread, he isn’t trying to run a scheme that is anywhere close to what Tech was doing under Kingsbury.

In his two seasons at Utah State (2017-18), Yost had dual-threat QB Jordan Love running his offense.  As a result, he had his QB run the ball a combined 89 times for 228 yards and 9 touchdowns over the last two years.

When Yost has had that type of QB, his offense has averaged 38.8 points per game.  But this year, his offense has put up just 30.3.

It will be interesting to see if either Duffey or Bowman can do enough this year to solidify the starting job headed into next fall or if a pair of young dual-threat QBs, redshirt freshman Maverick McIvor and 2020 signee Donovan Smith, will force their way into the conversation because of their ability to use their legs as well as their arm.

But we know that right now Yost and the Tech offensive coaches don’t want Duffey to do what he does best (run) for fear of injury nor do they trust him to make all the throws that the game calls for.  That’s why we saw 16 wide receiver screens against Iowa State.  However, even with Bowman at the helm, the offense was sluggish at best.  That would suggest that neither is the perfect fit for the scheme they are being asked to carry out.

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