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Texas Tech football: Matt Wells gives interesting 2020 insights in radio interview

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - OCTOBER 19: Head coach Matt Wells of the Texas Tech Red Raiders exits the team bus before the college football game against 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: Head coach Matt Wells of the Texas Tech Red Raiders exits the team bus before the college football game against 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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Quarterback Alan Bowman #10 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
Quarterback Alan Bowman #10 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /

Alan Bowman is the clear No. 1 QB

Texas Tech is in an unfamiliar place at the QB position.  Never before have we gone into the season with more questions about a player who was QB 1 in each of the last two seasons than we do in 2020.

How Alan Bowman plays in his redshirt sophomore season will be the most important factor in 2020, unless you consider that to be whether or not he is able to simply stay healthy.  And because of his substantial injury history, it was fair when Mosley asked Wells if there was a true competition between Bowman and redshirt freshman Maverick McIvor.

"“I think everything you said [about the QBs] was right you know,” Wells admitted.  “Bowman I think is certainly a good quarterback with the potential to be really good in this league and I think the only thing that’s holding him back is the ability to stay healthy.  Just like you said Matt, I’m hopeful that it has been a little bit of bad luck for him. “I believe Maverick McIvor is a really good young quarterback.  He jumped really up to the number two spot as a true freshman in training camp last August, broke his foot the last scrimmage on a noncontact injury, and then was healthy to go you know potentially go in a game in late November.  We ended up holding him [out] but yeah it’ll be a competition. “I want it to be a competition.  But if we played today, no question that Alan Bowman’s taking the first snap.”"

This was perhaps the most intriguing moment of Wells’ interview for me.  It isn’t the revelation that Bowman is the presumed starter.  After all, he’s the only QB on the roster who has taken even one snap at the college level.

But the fact that McIvor was the No. 2 QB last year when he broke his foot in late August was eye-opening.  That was both a strong statement about how good McIvor is while also being an indictment about former Red Raider Jett Duffey, who was forced to make eight starts last year.

When he did get on the field, Duffey played adequately.  But he didn’t play well enough to win games.  And the fact that he was beaten out by a true freshman in Bowman in 2018 and a second true freshman in McIvor should tell us quite a bit about what he was as a QB.

McIvor could be one of the players most impacted by the loss of a full set of spring practices, though.  If he was going to challenge Bowman, it would have had to have been in those workouts.  Now, Wells clearly believes Bowman is his guy.  But given both players’ injury history, Tech fans should be prepared to see each on the field this season.

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