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Texas Tech football: Former Red Raiders that would be perfect fit on 2020 team

By Matthew Conner

DALLAS - JANUARY 02: Brandon Carter #76 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders before play against the Mississippi Rebels during the AT&T Cotton Bowl on January 2, 2009 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
DALLAS - JANUARY 02: Brandon Carter #76 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders before play against the Mississippi Rebels during the AT&T Cotton Bowl on January 2, 2009 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /
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Running back Shannon Woods #2 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders  (Photo by Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images)
Running back Shannon Woods #2 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders  (Photo by Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images) /

RB Shannon Woods is the type of durable all-around back this roster needs

The running back position might be the most undervalued of all the positions in the spread offensive scheme because many fans think that the passing game takes significance away from the role of the RB.  But the reality is that RBs are just as important now as they were in the days when they were the focal point of almost every offense and this year, Tech enters the summer with only two scholarship players at the position, SaRodorick Thompson and true freshman signee Tahj Brooks.

But we learned last year that even three running backs are not enough to get through a season.  In 2019, Tech saw both Ta’Zhawn Henry and Armand Shyne miss multiple games due to injury in the second half of the year leaving Thompson as the only healthy scholarship RB available for parts of November and he was forced to play on a sprained ankle.

That’s why adding a player like former Red Raider Shannon Woods to this year’s team would be a godsend.  Not only was he durable (he missed only four games in his four-year career) he was able to do everything asked of a spread offense RB.

Former RB Baron Batch was a player that I also considered (Taurean Henderson was too obvious of a choice, much like Crabtree or Harrell) but his powerful running style was too similar to the way that both Thompson and Brooks play the game.  But the 5-foot-10, 190-pound Woods was more explosive and versatile than any RB currently on the Red Raider roster and he would be the perfect complement to Thompson.

In addition to his 2,249 career rushing yards and 33 career touchdowns on the ground, he caught 154 passes for 1,192 more yards and seven scores.  Additionally, he may have been one of the best Tech RBs we’ve ever seen when it came to the all-important job of pass blocking, as we saw on the famous 2006 game-winning TD pass to beat Texas A&M in College Station in the final minutes as he picked up a blitzing LB to allow Harrell to deliver a perfect pass to Robert Johnson.

Tech offensive coordinator David Yost loves to utilize his running backs as much as any OC in program history since the end of the Spike Dykes era but last year, he was limited in what he could do because of the lack of talent and depth at that position.  That’s why we can assume he will try to add some extra help this summer via the grad transfer portal.  But just imagine how happy he would be to add a player of Shannon Woods’ ability.

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