Texas Tech football: Red Raiders land grad transfer OT who could start

Wednesday, the Texas Tech football program added Wofford grad transfer offensive tackle Josh Burger to the program giving Matt Wells a potential starter at a position of need.

A member of the FCS, Wofford isn’t exactly a football powerhouse. But that hasn’t stopped several programs from around the nation from courting grad transfer tackle Josh Burger, who committed to the Texas Tech football program on Wednesday.

Picking Tech over offers from Indiana and South Florida, among others, the 6-foot-4, 290-pound tackle will not only bolster Tech’s offensive line depth, but he will also compete for a starting job. He was a two-year starter for the Terriers and earned honorable-mention FCS All-American recognition following the 2018 season.

"“I think that I’m a better pass blocker than I am run blocker, which is weird because I am coming out of a spread-option type offense,” Burger told Chris Hummer of 247Sports. “If anything, I’m excited to be a part of a faster-paced offense. Not that we didn’t have the athletes or personnel for that at Wofford, but there were different philosophies and systems in place there.”"

Wofford runs a triple-option offensive attack. Thus, Burger should be more than comfortable helping out when Tech wants to run the ball as offensive coordinator David Yost has said he wants to do since arriving. But as a tackle at Texas Tech, his most important task will be to protect injury-prone QB Alan Bowman.

This is the second transfer of the offseason that Wells has added to compete for one of the two vacant tackle positions. Tech also signed massive 6-foot-8, 325-pound JUCO transfer Ethan Carde back in February.

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They are now set to battle it out with players like Zach Adams, Will Farrar, Trevor Roberson, and Casey Verhulst for starting jobs. This season, finding replacements for multi-year starters Travis Bruffy and Terence Steele has to be one of the biggest concerns for the Red Raiders given the fact that both starting QB Alan Bowman and backup QB Maverick McIvor have both missed most or all of the last two seasons with significant injuries.

In 2019, pass protection was one of Tech’s strongest suits. Allowing only 25 sacks, the Red Raiders were ranked No. 25 in the nation and No. 2 in the Big 12.

But with three of last year’s starters having graduated, rebuilding the line is one of the most important tasks facing Wells and Co. this offseason. Fortunately, the interior of the line looks solid with center Dawson Deaton returning along with right guard Jack Anderson set to come back from an injury that cost him the final 8 games of the year. At left guard, Tech will likely turn to Weston Wright after the sophomore-to-be filled in admirably for Anderson last season.

At tackle though, there’s just no clear-cut answer and that problem was only exasperated by the cancellation of spring football due to the coronavirus outbreak. Now, whenever the season begins, the coaching staff will be even further behind the 8-ball when it comes to finding the starting tackles that will give Bowman the best shot at playing a full season for the first time in his career.

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Thus, a player with two years of starting experience such as Burger has might have an edge. If nothing else, he helps solidify what is arguably Tech’s biggest question mark by providing the Red Raiders with another quality option at a position group that could be the wildcard of the entire 2020 season.

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