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Texas Tech football: Areas that Red Raiders failed to solidify in 2019

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 23: The Texas Tech Red Raiders are led onto the field by the Masked Rider before the college football game against the Kansas State Wildcats on November 23, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 23: The Texas Tech Red Raiders are led onto the field by the Masked Rider before the college football game against the Kansas State Wildcats on November 23, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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AUSTIN, TX – NOVEMBER 29: Jett Duffey #7 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TX – NOVEMBER 29: Jett Duffey #7 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images) /

We head into 2020 with no answer at QB

The worst development over the last calendar year for this program is that we have gone from a place of believing that we had the quarterback position figured out to having nothing but questions at that spot.

When Wells came to town, he was not shy about immediately handing the reins of the offense to Alan Bowman despite the fact that he had missed the final three games of the year with his second collapsed lung.  Now, some wonder if Bowman will even be on the roster when the 2020 season shakes out.

Though there’s been no public indication from the sophomore that he is even considering a transfer, the fact that he now finds himself in what will be a legitimate 4-way battle for the starting job means that he has taken a significant step backward in regard to his stature on the team.  After missing the final nine games of the year with a shoulder injury, Bowman will enter next year as a redshirt sophomore so if he does not win the job (or even thinks he may not have the inside track) he almost certainly will explore his options because no QB in his position will want to hold the clipboard for a program that he used to lead.

With the way Jett Duffey played this year in Bowman’s absence, there no way either player can be considered the frontrunner at the position yet.  But neither has distinguished himself as a no-brainer option.

Duffey took a step forward in 2019 throwing only five picks in 367 passes, which is a noticeable improvement from 2018 when he was picked off 6 times in 154 throws.  But he’s never made the plays to win a close game with his arm and he’s just 3-8 as a starter.

Meanwhile, Bowman has yet to prove that he’s durable enough to be a reliable QB.  He’s missed 13 games and made only 10 starts.  What’s more, he’s just 2-3 in games he’s started and completed against Power 5 opponents.

Those questions leave the door wide open for redshirt freshman Maverick McIvor, who himself has significant injury history after playing in only one game in his last two seasons of football, and 2020 signee Donovan Smith, who has been a starting QB for only one season.  Any way one looks at the position, it is impossible to see through all the question marks to find any definitive answer.

Some of this problem was not of Wells’ making, especially the injury to Bowman, but still, he oversaw a program that went from believing that it had the QB position figured out to now even being linked to potential grad transfers as stop-gap solutions.  That’s certainly a step in the wrong direction.

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