Texas Tech football: Red Raiders with opportunities to shine in 2020

IR KeSean Carter

If Wells and offensive coordinator David Yost don’t move junior receiver KeSean Carter to the slot permanently this year, I might throw a sports tantrum.  That’s because Carter showed in last season’s final game just how dynamic he can be when playing in the slot.

Catching 11 passes for 150 yards and a TD against Texas on a rainy day in Austin, the speedster, who also runs track for Wes Kittley’s program, had a career day.  In fact, he amassed over 27% of his entire career yardage total in that one performance, which was his first start at inside receiver.

It never made sense to me that the 5-foot-11, 180-pounder was asked to play outside receiver by both the Kingsbury and the Wells coaching staff.  Players of that size almost never flourish playing outside the hashes but they can dominate in the slot.

Prior to that game, Carter’s career-high was just 76 yards against Lamar in the second game of 2018.  That’s his only other game as a Red Raider with more than 50 yards receiving.  In other words, playing outside has not been where Carter should have been for the last two seasons.

He was moved into the slot for the UT game because Tech was down to just one healthy slot, McLane Mannix, who was dinged up as well.  The other two slot receivers from last year, Dalton Rigdon and Xavier White, had already been lost for the season earlier in the year.

In one game in the slot, Carter came within 98 yards of matching Mannix’s season total while he amassed 30% of the yards Rigdon did in 10 games.  Thus, Tech needs to have a four-way competition for the starting job at inside receiver this fall and if that happens, I’ll put my money on KeSean Carter.