Texas Tech football: How no spring ball could negatively impact Red Raiders

Alan Bowman’s timing with his receivers

In the modern age of football when the forward pass has become the lifeblood of most offenses, it is more critical than ever for quarterbacks and receivers to be on the same page.  That’s one important task that programs often attempt to accomplish in spring practices being as there’s no other time prior to fall camp that coaches can require that their QBs and receivers get together to work on their timing.

Consider how important that aspect of the spring was going to be for Texas Tech.  With both Alan Bowman and Maverick McIvor returning from season-ending injuries, the ability for the Red Raider QBs to work on their timing with their receivers was going to be a huge aspect of the spring.

The passing game relies on timing more than any other aspect of football.  Quarterbacks have to trust that their receivers are going to be exactly where they are supposed to be and often, they have to let the ball go before the receiver has even broken his route.

The only way to develop that trust is through countless repetitions, many of which come against air and take place outside of the normal practice sessions.  But since Alan Bowman has arrived on campus, he’s had his opportunities to work with his receivers diminished by injury.

The in-game reps between Bowman and senior T.J. Vasher have been limited to just seven games in 2018 and three games in 2020.  And if you go back to the last game Bowman played, the 28-14 loss to Arizona when he completed just 54.5% of his passes (the second-worst completion percentage of his career), it was obvious that he and Vasher were not on the same page.  In fact, Bowman’s first INT of that game came on a play when Vasher ran a stop route and Bowman threw a fade route to the endzone where only an Arizona defender was in the area.

Given that Bowman missed so much time in 2018 because of his two collapsed lungs and that Vasher missed most of the spring and part of fall camp in 2019 with an injury, it was easy to see how the two could have been out of sync.  Could that happen again if there is an extended hiatus because of the coronavirus this year?

Then there is the fact that Bowman has played only three games with sophomore receiver Erik Ezukanma, who led the team in receiving last year.  He also has only three games of experience with Travis Koontz, McLane Mannix, and Xavier White, all who will be factors in this year’s passing game.

For the Red Raiders to be better on offense this year, Alan Bowman is going to have to take the passing game to another level.  But one has to wonder if that will be possible if he and his receivers are once again robbed of important practice time during which they would typically be developing their rapport with one another.