Texas Tech football: The most underrated players of the Mike Leach era

WR Mickey Peters

Wide receiver Mickey Peters isn’t thought of in the same light as some of the other pass-catchers from the Leach era.  But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t a fantastic player in his own right.

From 2000-03, he caught 196 passes for 2,813 yards and 22 TDs.  And along the way, he displayed some of the best hands we’ve ever seen on the South Plains.

The Weatherford native was a QB in high school but quickly became a security blanket for Kliff Kingsbury in Lubbock.  Thus, it is ironic that his most iconic moment as a Red Raider was a pass he threw and not one he caught.

With Tech leading No. 3 Texas 42-38 with just 2:45 to play in 2002, he caught a lateral from Kingsbury and fired a strike to a streaking Wes Welker for a 35-yard gain on 3rd-and-9.  That play would essentially seal the game as it would allow the Red Raiders to maintain possession and run out the clock.

The 6-foot-3 receiver came from a family of coaches so it isn’t surprising that he was always in the right place, especially in critical moments.  He was not an elite athlete in terms of speed or strength but he was shifty and nimble and he always seemed to be thinking one step ahead of the defense.

He is 7th in Texas Tech football history in career touchdown receptions and 12 of those came in 2003 when he was part of what many believe is the best Red Raider offense ever as B.J. Symons threw what was at the time a single-season NCAA record 52 touchdown passes.  Peters’ TD total from that year still ranks tied for 8th-most in a season in Tech history.

We’ve been spoiled by the receiver play we’ve seen in the last two decades of Texas Tech football and that’s why a player with Peters’ career numbers isn’t always top of mind when the Leach years are discussed.  But that doesn’t take away from what a fantastic player he was, especially in the moments when his team needed him to come up big.