Texas Tech football: Forgotten players that could be factors in 2020
If the Texas Tech football team is to have a successful 2020 season, these players that have been largely forgotten by most fans could be significant factors.
The 2020 Texas Tech football team has to be the one that finally begins to turn the tide for the program. If not, Matt Wells’s tenure will suddenly find itself hurling towards the dreaded “hot seat” zone much quicker than anyone ever expected.
Coming off of four-straight losing seasons, Tech football is in danger of falling into the same category as Kansas as far as the Big 12 hierarchy goes. After all, last year’s 37-34 loss to the Jayhawks was yet another signal of just how far Tech has fallen as the Red Raiders lost to the conference laughing stock for only the second time ever.
Think about how long it has been since we saw a winning season in Lubbock. The year was 2015.
Barack Obama was still in office. Donald Trump was still just a celebrity businessman. Pat Mahomes was just in his first full season as the starting QB for the Red Raiders, three years before he would win the NFL’s Most Valuable Player Award.
The current streak of four-straight seasons below .500 is the second-longest in the Big 12 trailing only the 11-year run of futility that Kansas is in the midst of after going 3-9 in 2019. No other programs in the league even come close.
Iowa State had a recent string of seven-straight losing seasons from 2010-16 but has since rattled off three years with more wins than losses. Every other program in the conference, those that Texas Tech measures itself against, has avoided such runs over the last decade.
For instance, the last time Oklahoma State had a losing season was in 2005, the first year of Mike Gundy‘s reign. In Fort Worth, Gary Patterson has never had back-to-back losing campaigns. The last time such an occurrence befell TCU was 1996-97 under the watch of Pat Sullivan.
Say what you want about how the program went about it, but Baylor had just one losing record in the decade of the 2010s. That was, of course, the 1-11 year that former head coach Matt Rhule produced in his first season in Waco, 2017.
As for Kansas State, there were only two losing seasons in the second act of Bill Snyder (2009-2018). Of course, he returned from retirement to save the program from the Ron Prince disaster when the Wildcats went 17-20 over the course of three years and suffered back-to-back 5-7 seasons in 2007-08.
Neal Brown went just 5-8 in 2019, his first year as head coach at West Virginia. While that was just one game better than Wells’ record was in Lubbock, it was easier for the people in Morgantown to stomach given that it was the program’s first losing season since 2013 and just the second since 2001.
Perhaps surprising to some is the fact that the Texas Longhorns had consecutive losing seasons as recently as 2014-16. But that was the first time that had happened in Austin since 1992-93. And of course, Oklahoma may never have another losing season for as long as the Earth revolves around the sun.
Now, it is time for Texas Tech to rejoin the ranks of the winners. But for that to happen, a number of players returning from injury are going to have to be back to the types of players that they were prior to their extended absences in 2019.
There are some that immediately come to mind. Most obvious is QB Alan Bowman, who must prove to be the answer at QB after having each of his two collegiate seasons cut short.
Likewise, many fans understand the importance of right guard Jack Anderson’s return. On an offensive line looking to replace three multi-year starters from last season, the Frisco, Texas native (who is arguably this roster’s best player) needs to be a dominant force once again.
But there are other players trying to return to the field this year who fans may have forgotten about. In some cases, we haven’t even had the chance to get to know these players at all. However, if they can make a name for themselves in 2020, we could finally see Texas Tech produce a winning record.