Texas Tech football: 3 Kansas offensive players Red Raiders have to stop

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(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /

Senior QB Carter Stanley is starting to find his rhythm

After last year’s 48-16 Red Raider victory over KU in Lubbock, I remember telling my friend as we left the Jones that KU was a decent QB away from no longer being a pushover. It’s hard to say that senior Carter Stanley has been anything more than sufficient this far in 2019 but he is giving KU what it has been lacking for quite some time in the pocket…competence.

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Thus far, he’s thrown for 1,485 yards, 16 touchdowns, and four picks. Those numbers should make him a god in Lawrence.

For comparison, against Tech last year, KU QB Peyton Bender completed just 18 of 41 passes (just 43%) for 221 yards with two touchdowns and a pick. Even with a weapon like Pooka in the backfield, an offense can’t compete with play that lousy at the game’s most important position.

Carter is a fiery player who even took a public shot at UT head coach Tom Herman this week. The 6-foot-2, 198-pounder also runs the ball like a fullback, often initiating contact when he could go out of bounds or give himself up by sliding.

Against UT, he had a season-high 310 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. He still had some shaky moments when his decision-making seemed to betray him and he completed just 57.4% of his passes but he gave his offense life and drove his team 75 yards in 8 plays and converted a 2-point try take a 48-47 lead over UT with just 1:11 to go.

On that drive, he was 5-6 for 71 yards, including a 22-yard TD. He also found Daylon Charlot in the back of the endzone for the 2-point conversion to cap off his night.

Now back in the spread instead of the traditional pro-style scheme, KU will run plenty of R-P-O looks with Stanley, who had 65 rushing yards on nine carries in Austin. He is going to give the Jayhawks the best QB that they have had in quite some time and can make more plays than any KU quarterback we’ve seen Tech face in perhaps a decade.

"“We can and will do this every single weekend, if we play our game and we execute,” Stanley said this week referring to the way his team played against Texas. “I think the rest of the Big 12 should start taking Kansas a little bit more seriously.” (He we referencing an off-hand comment Herman made prior to last weekend’s game in which Herman sarcastically said to the UT media “We actually play a game this week?”"

The way he and his offensive teammates played against UT, there’s no doubt that Texas Tech is taking Stanley seriously. If he continues his hot streak and extends his current streak to four-straight games without a pick, the Red Raider defense may have its hands full in Lawrence.

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