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Texas Tech football: 3 Red Raiders earn Athlon preseason first-team All-Big 12

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 07: Defensive lineman Eli Howard #53 of Texas Tech enters the field before the game of the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the UTEP Miners on September 07, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 07: Defensive lineman Eli Howard #53 of Texas Tech enters the field before the game of the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the UTEP Miners on September 07, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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Jack Anderson, Eli Howard, and Austin McNamara lead ten Texas Tech football players who have earned preseason All-Big 12 honors from Athlon Sports.

When Athlon Sports begins to release its preseason All-Conference teams, we know that the college football season is beginning to appear on the horizon.  This year, three Texas Tech football players earned first-team honors while seven others also appear on the Athlon Big 12 preseason teams.

For the Red Raiders, there is one first-team representative from all three phases of the game.  The headliner is Jack Anderson, who is one of the nation’s best interior linemen.

Despite missing all but three games in 2019, Anderson brings 28 career starts to the Red Raider offensive line this year.  Prior to suffering an upper-body injury that cost him the final eight games of his junior year, the Frisco, Texas native had started all 25 games in which he had been in the Texas Tech football program.

In 2017, he was named a Freshman All-American by ESPN and USA Today and in 2018 he garnered second-team All-Big 12 honors.  Now, he returns to help bolster a line that returns only two players that started more than three games in 2019, Dawson Deaton and Weston Wright.

On defense, Eli Howard makes the first-team.  The senior defensive end from San Angelo started every game last year, despite playing through injury, to bring his career total to 30 starts.  He’s racked up 14 sacks as a Red Raider including five last fall.

On special teams, punter Austin McNamara was recognized as a first-team preseason selection. The Arizona native had a stellar freshman campaign averaging 45 yards per kick while seeing 20 of his kicks settle inside the opponent’s 20 and only five resulting in touchbacks.  His yards per kick were good for fourth-best in Texas Tech football history.

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Meanwhile, the Red Raiders landed two players on the preseason second-team offense, SaRodorick Thompson and Dawson Deaton.  Thompson, a redshirt sophomore, broke out last year with 765 yards and 12 TDs to become just the 8th freshman to ever lead the Red Raiders in rushing.  Meanwhile, Deaton started all 12 games while playing center for the first time in his career.

The only second-team defender to represent the Red Raiders is Riko Jeffers.  The senior LB enters the year with 169 career tackles including a career-best 76 last year.

On the third-team offense, we find Erik Ezukanma, who was a first-time starter last year as a redshirt freshman. After a bit of a slow start, he came on as the season progressed and finished with a team-best 664 yards while also finding the endzone four times.

Athlon even goes so far as to give a fourth-team and there we find senior receiver T.J. Vasher, who was a bit of a disappointment last year with a career-low 515 yards.  On the fourth-team defense, we surprisingly find DB Adrian Frye, who has moved back to corner after a disastrous attempt at trying to play safety last year.   Additionally, Trey Wolffe is the fourth-team placekicker after hitting over 90% of his FG attempts in 2019.

With 10 players on the four Athlon preseason teams, Tech comes in at fifth in the conference.  Not surprisingly, Oklahoma leads the way with 18.  Iowa State is right behind with 17 players honored while Texas has 16.

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Oklahoma State sits one spot ahead of Tech with 14 players while TCU has 9, Baylor has 8, and both West Virginia, and Kanas have 6.  Hopefully, that means that the Red Raiders will be competing in the upper half of the league this season after falling into the same neighborhood as the Jayhawks in Matt Wells’ first year.  But for certain, we know that football season is starting to become more than just a blip on the radar.

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