Texas Tech football: The best one-hit-wonders in Red Raider history

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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Antoine Wesley #4 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders  (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
Antoine Wesley #4 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders  (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

Considering that prior to the 2018 season, Antoine Wesley had made just 10 receptions for 137 yards in his career, no one expected him to have the type of season that he did as a junior.  With 88 catches for 1,410 yards and eight TDs that year, he put up the third-most receiving yards in a season by a Red Raider on his way to being a Biletnikoff Award semifinalist.

The lanky 6-foot-4 Las Vegas native put together one of the most remarkable seasons in Tech history given the fact that he had to catch passes from three different starting QBs who had a combined total of one career start entering the year.  But despite the fact that he had no opportunity to develop a true on-field rapport with either McLane Carter, Alan Bowman, or Jett Duffey, Wesley proved to be a big-time receiver.

His breakout game was a 261-yard, 3-TD game against Houston in week three.  That remains the most receiving yards any player in Tech history has accumulated in a game.  He also had five 100-yard days that year, including four straight against Kansas, Iowa State, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Entering the final two games of the season, he was just 82 yards from matching Keke Coutee for the second-most yards in a season at Tech.  However, an injury to Duffey made the passing game impotent in a loss at Kansas State and Wesley and Carter hooked up just four times for 35 yards in a season-ending loss to Baylor.

Thus, Wesley fell 19 yards shy of catching Coutee.  However, his junior year will forever go down as one of the best in program history.

But we never got to see an encore as he left for the NFL following that season.  That move proved to be a mistake as he was undrafted.  Thus, he left us all wondering just what could have been had he not been a one-hit-wonder in the Hub City.