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Texas Tech football: Team records that may never be broken

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - OCTOBER 19: The Will Rogers and Soapsuds statue is pictured before the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Iowa State Cyclones on October 19, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - OCTOBER 19: The Will Rogers and Soapsuds statue is pictured before the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Iowa State Cyclones on October 19, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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Wide receiver Wes Welker #27 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Wide receiver Wes Welker #27 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /

8 punt return TDs

Considering that Wes Welker’s eight career punt return touchdowns were an NCAA record when he left school and still sit second all-time, don’t count on that record falling as well.  After all, no Red Raider is even over halfway to Welker’s mark.

Dante Pettis from Washington bested Welker’s mark when he returned his ninth punt for a TD in 2017.   But the closest Red Raiders to Welker are Tyrone Thurman and Dane Johnson, both of whom have four career punt return TDs.

Welker set the NCAA record when he took a punt 58 yards to the house against Colorado in Tech’s 26-21 win in 2003.  That broke a tie with four players: Nebraska’s Johnny Rodgers, Kansas State’s David Allen and Jack Mitchell, and Oklahoma’s Antonio Perkins.  Perkins would match Welker with No. 8 in 2004.

It’s been a while since Tech got a punt return TD.  Eric Morris took a punt back all the way for a score in the second game of the 2008 season in a road win at Nevada and since then, it’s been 11 seasons without a punt return TD. (Technically, Thomas Leggett returned a punt for a TD in 2018 but that came off of a block by Dakota Allen.)   Thus, it seems unlikely that anyone is ever going to get to nine to knock Welker down a rung on the school’s all-time list.

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