Texas Tech football: The most underrated players of the Tommy Tuberville era

RB Eric Stephens

Eric Stephens won’t go down as one of the most memorable running backs in program history but he is the type of player that Texas Tech is looking to add to the running back corps in 2020.  The 5-foot-8 Mansfield, Texas native was a dependable all-around back who ran for 1,967 yards and 21 TDs from 2009-2012.

Despite being somewhat diminutive, he was highly dependable as he played a full 13 games in three of his four seasons.  The other season, his junior campaign, was cut short after just five games when he was lost for the year after sustaining a torn knee ligament against Texas A&M on a hit that many Red Raider fans believed was dirty.

That year, he was well on his way to his best season and likely would have become a 1,000-yard rusher given the fact that he already had amassed 565 yards to go along with 8 TDs.  He was never the same following that hit meaning that his sophomore year will go down as his best as he went for 880 yards from scrimmage, 668 on the ground.

Stephens never became a star but he was the type player that good teams covet because he was good enough to be part of a winning roster.  This year, Tech enters the offseason with only one scholarship RB in the program, SaRodorick Thompson, and one true freshman, Tahj Brooks, on the way.  Therefore, Matt Wells will be looking for a player to add to that tandem through the transfer market and if he finds one cut from the mold of Eric Stephens, he will be more than happy.