Texas Tech football: Five underrated players from the Kingsbury era

Bradley Marquez made clutch plays

Any time a player begins his career with a TD on his first catch and ends it with a TD on his final catch, you know that he has a great sense of timing.  That’s exactly what Bradley Marquez did as a Red Raider.

From 2011-14, the Midland native caught 155 passes for 1,866 yards and 17 touchdowns.  And many of those receptions were significant.

A two-time honorable-mention All-Conference selection, the converted HS running back began making plays almost the moment he stepped on campus.  In his Red Raider debut, he had a 10-yard TD reception against Texas State.  That made him the first true freshman to catch a TD pass in a season-opener for Tech in 17 years.

In 2013, he scored the game-winning TD against No. 24 TCU in Lubbock.  With just 3:48 to play, he hauled in a 19-yard TD from Davis Webb to break a 10-10 tie and help lead his team to a 20-10 upset in Kingsbury’s first Big 12 game as a head coach.

Later that year, he had a 23-yard TD pass in the second quarter of Tech’s Holiday Bowl upset of No. 14 Arizona State.  That score pushed his team’s lead to 19-6 and put the Sun Devils on their heels.

A year later, his three touchdowns helped Tech stave off an upset in El Paso.  In the 30-26 Red Raider win over UTEP, all three of his catches went for a score including the game-winning nine-yard TD in the fourth quarter.

He also had a three-TD game in his Red Raider finale.  When Tech came within two points of upsetting No. 7 Baylor, Marquez caught six balls for 137 yards including a TD in the final two minutes to pull Tech to within 48-46.  But the subsequent two-point try was unsuccessful and the Bears escaped.

Sometimes we over-value sheer numbers while failing to take into consideration when those numbers come.  That might have been the case for Bradley Marquez who had pedestrian numbers for a Red Raider receiver but who had a knack for coming up big in the most important moments.