Texas Tech football: The 10 best seasons by a RB in “Air Raid” era

DeAndre Washington #21 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)

No. 1: Washington 2015

Though we’ve focused quite a bit on the versatility of the RBs on this list, the No. 1 season by a RB in the “Air Raid” era of Texas Tech football was compiled mainly on the ground. But that doesn’t lessen what DeAndre Washington did in 2015.

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In total, he put up 1,877 yards and 16 TDs as Tech went 7-5 in the regular season. That was the last time that the program managed to end the year with a winning record.

His 1,492 yards on the ground were a career-best. That’s the fifth-most in program history.

To finish that regular season, he had a career day with 248 rushing yards to go along with three scores as Tech beat Kansas State. He also had 188 yards and four more TDs on the ground against TCU in an OT win.

Those were just two of the six 100-yard rushing games that he had that year. What’s more, in all but two of that year’s 13 games did he fail to run for at least 72 yards.

Pat Mahomes gets a ton of credit for his play that season, his first as the starting QB. But Washington was just as good in his fourth year as Tech’s primary running back. And since then, there has been no one close to being that type of player at RB for the Red Raiders.

If the Red Raiders are going to get back to being the type of offense that we saw them field with Washington and Mahomes in 2015, the ground game has to be more dominant, especially late in the season. That’s when Washington took over as a senior as he wrapped up the regular season with three-straight 100-yard games including 173 yards and two TDs against Texas in Austin.

But we can’t hold many Red Raider running backs up to the standard that Washington set. After all, running backs of his caliber have been rare in the history of Texas Tech football.