Texas Tech football: Ranking the 10 best QB seasons of “Air Raid” era

No. 6: Mahomes in 2015

Another QB battle on the South Plains came in 2015 when Pat Mahomes and Davis Webb fought it out for the starting job in 2015.  Of course, we know that Mahomes won the gig and went on to throw for 4,653 yards, 36 TDs, and 15 picks.  In addition, he ran for 456 more yards and 10 TDs.

At the time, the sophomore was one of just five quarterbacks in FBS history to pass for 4,000 yards and 30 touchdowns and also rush for at least 450 yards and 10 touchdowns.  And his passing total remains 7th-most in program history for a single season.

To put in perspective how good Mahomes was in this season, consider that he completed 63.6% of his passes, nearly the same percentage as Cumbie in 2005, but he averaged almost two yards more per attempt that year.  When considering how tough the throws are that a QB has to make, yards per attempt is a telling stat and the difference in two yards per throw over the course of a full season is sizeable.

Playing opposite of the nation’s worse defense, the Whitehouse, Texas native was forced to engage in shootouts on a nearly weekly basis.  That’s one reason why he threw just over 44 passes per game.

What’s more, twice that year he lost games in which he led the offense to over 50 points.  Additionally, in none of Tech’s six losses did the offense score fewer than 26 points.

His best game came at home against Iowa State when he threw for 428 yards, 5 TDs, and no picks.  He actually topped that in terms of yards against Oklahoma State with 480 but that night he tossed two picks to go along with his four TD passes in a one-score loss.

That year, he ranked 1st in the Big 12 in total passing yards, completions (364), and total yards (5,109) and that was good enough to help get his team to the Texas Bowl.  But as we will see in a moment, it was far from his best season as a Red Raider.