Friday, we learned that quarterback Jett Duffey has entered the NCAA transfer portal meaning that the Texas Tech football team will have one less competitor for the starting QB job next year.
It appears that Jett Duffey’s strange career at Texas Tech is now over. The once highly-touted high school quarterback who was twice suspended before performing rather well when thrust into action in each of the last two years when Alan Bowman was lost to injury has entered the transfer portal.
He ends his time as a Red Raider with 4,077 passing yards, 26 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. He also ran for 587 yards and 5 touchdowns in the scarlet and black.
Coming off his best season, Duffey’s stock is at its highest since the day he signed with the Red Raiders. Starting eight games, he threw for 2,840 yards and 18 touchdowns with 5 picks. The problem is that he won only two games as a starter.
Many are quick to point out that he could not be held responsible for the failings of his team’s secondary and pass rush and that’s true but he also failed to come through with scores late in close losses. In the second OT at Baylor, he couldn’t get his team into the endzone allowing the Bears to win with a TD of their own.
With the game against Kansas tied with five minutes to play, he and the offense went 3-and-out allowing the Jayhawks to drive down for the game-winning field goal. Trailing TCU by two points with 5:38 left, Duffey couldn’t lead his offense to a first down on its second-to-last possession of the game. The next time Tech got the ball, McLane Mannix fumbled on the first play to seal the loss.
In a 3-point loss to Kansas State, he was picked off in the endzone with Tech trailing 30-20 in the 4th quarter. That mistake came just one play after the Red Raiders had seized some momentum with a fake punt that saw Austin McNamara complete a beautiful 34-yard pass to Erik Ezukanma.
For his career, Duffey is just 3-8 as a starter and while that record falls as much at the feet of other position groups on the roster as it does Duffey, the fact is that he never proved to be a winning QB capable of carrying his team to victory in close games. Much like an NBA player who scores 17 points per game for a last-place team, Duffey put up decent stats that never seemed to lead to key wins.
But there was a time when we didn’t know if we would ever see him get a shot as a Red Raider. That’s because off-field issues almost derailed his career almost as soon as he stepped on campus.
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In 2016, he was accused of having sex with a female who was too intoxicated to consent. After a Title IX investigation, he was suspended for two semesters meaning that he spent the spring and summer semesters of 2017 away from his team. That suspension seemed to hinder his development and he spent his redshirt freshman season as the third-string QB behind Nic Shimonek and McLane Carter.
Then, in 2018 he was arrested during spring practice as he was competing for the starting QB job with Carter and Alan Bowman. The incident in which he was detained for actions outside of a Lubbock bar was rather minor in comparison to what we see from other athletes these days but did result in a suspension of around two weeks during a time when he needed to be putting his best foot forward in order to win the job.
In the end, Duffey’s career at Tech was rather disappointing given how touted he was as a high school player. After leading his team to the 2015 5-A state title game, he was named the 5A Player of the Year and Dave Campbell’s Mr. Texas Football. In fact, he was the most decorated high school QB to come to Texas Tech since Graham Harrell.
Unfortunately, the Title IX suspension seemed to derail his career and interrupt the natural order of succession for Duffey, who was not ready to take over when Pat Mahomes left Tech after his junior year for the NFL. Duffey was supposed to be Kliff Kingsbury’s next star QB but instead, his inability to become the player that he was expected to be was a huge reason Kingsbury lost his job one year ago.
Now, Tech enters the spring with a three-man QB competition. Alan Bowman has to be considered the heavy favorite now as he’s the only option who has even attempted a college pass (though there are some who believe Bowman might explore his options this year as well). Maverick McIvor impressed during fall camp before breaking his foot, an injury that cost him his entire true freshman year. Meanwhile, 2020 signee Donovan Smith just completed his first year as a high school starter and has to be considered a long shot to win the job despite an impressive 2019 season at Frienship H.S.
It’s become increasingly common for quarterbacks to enter the transfer portal these days. It feels like the days of players waiting for their time like B.J. Symmons, Sonnie Cumbie, and Cody Hodges might be over outside of the random Shimonek type of situations that only come to fruition because a number of unforeseen circumstances all aligned just right.
Tech is no stranger to losing quarterbacks via transfers with Michael Brewer, Baker Mayfield, and Davis Webb all exiting through the portal. Now, Duffey is headed out of town the same way and though he had a solid 2019, we can’t help but wonder what he could have become had he been able to realize his immense potential and not allow issues away from the field derail his career.