Texas Tech football: Forgotten players that could be factors in 2020

IR Xavier White

Xavier White was the breakout star of 2019 fall camp.  The former Monterey High School product walked on last summer after a year at the JUCO ranks and quickly started turning heads.

In fact, by the time Matt Wells met with the media for the first time after the start of August practices, White was already a player that he was speaking highly of.  And that carried over into the start of the regular season.

For the first four games of the year, White was proving to be a weapon.  He had come up with 10 catches for 159 yards and a TD.  Most of that had been as a result of his 5-catch, 107-yard, 1-TD game in the opener against Montana State.

But a shoulder injury sustained in the fourth game of the year, a blowout loss at Oklahoma, prevented Red Raider fans from really getting to know this local product.  The good news though is the fact that he didn’t lose a year of eligibility being as his four-game season was brief enough to allow him to redshirt.

This year, the speedy 5-foot-11, 185-pounder could add some much-needed juice to the offense.  With an average of 15.9 yards per reception last fall, he proved to be the type of player that can make game-changing plays anytime he touches the ball.

The same can be said about Dalton Rigdon, who also runs track for Texas Tech in addition to playing slot receiver.  After leading Tech’s inside receivers last year with 34 catches for 486 yards, and 5 TDs, he comes back from an inuury that cut his season short after 10 games.  He’s also shown some top-end speed that defenses must account for but his speed is more straight-line whereas White is a bit more elusive in the open field. (We will discuss Rigdon more in a moment.)

On the other hand, the third slot receiver from last year, McLane Mannix, is more of a possession receiver in the mold of Danny Amendola or Austin Zouzalik.  That’s a useful type of player to have on the field as well but the 2020 Red Raiders need more chunk plays in the passing game than they got last year.  Perhaps White’s return could be part of bringing the explosiveness back to Jones Stadium.