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Texas Tech football: Five players that will be wildcards this season

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TX - NOVEMBER 10: T.J. Vasher #9 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders reacts to scoring a touchdown during the game against the Texas Longhorns on November 10, 2018 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas defeated Texas Tech 41-34. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TX - NOVEMBER 10: T.J. Vasher #9 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders reacts to scoring a touchdown during the game against the Texas Longhorns on November 10, 2018 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas defeated Texas Tech 41-34. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /
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The Texas Tech Red Raider mascot ‘Masked Rider’. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
The Texas Tech Red Raider mascot ‘Masked Rider’. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

For various reasons, we don’t know for certain what we will get from these five Texas Tech football players making them true wildcards in 2020.

One of the most exciting elements of sports is the unknown.  That’s what makes every season such a wild ride.

What makes this year’s Texas Tech football season so hard to predict is that the Red Raiders simply don’t have many players from whom we think we know what we are going to get.  That’s likely to make this a fascinating but at times maddening fall as is the case with most football seasons in the Hub City.

We assume that right guard Jack Anderson is going to be back to being one of the nation’s best interior offensive linemen after missing nine games last year.  Certainly, he will be on the radar of NFL teams as he is likely to be a draft entrant next offseason despite still having the ability to return to Tech for one more season.

Next to him will be center Dawson Deaton, his former high school teammate at Frisco High School.  Deaton is also a player we are confident in after he allowed no sacks last year in his first season as Tech’s starter in the middle of the o-line.

Senior DE Eli Howard has been rather consistent over the course of his Red Raider career.  Coming off a career-high six sacks in 2019, there’s reason to have confidence in his ability to be a reliable pass-rush threat given that he’s had at least 2.5 sacks in each one of his three seasons as a Red Raider.  The question though is whether he can avoid the type of nagging injuries that have slowed him somewhat in each of the last two seasons.

In the backfield, everyone assumes sophomore RB SaRodorick Thompson will have a huge year after rushing for 765 yards and 12 TDs last fall.  Likewise, we all believe that sophomore WR Erik Ezukanma will be a force on the outside after he led the team in receiving as a redshirt freshman with 664 yards.

We must also mention the two kickers that Tech will bring back.  Both punter Austin McNamara and placekicker Trey Wolff return after freshmen campaigns that saw them put together two of the best seasons in program history at their positions.  McNamara’s 45.0 yards per punt was a Red Raider record for a freshman while Wolff made 20-22 field goals, the second-most successful FG attempts in a season by a Tech kicker.

On the other hand, the vast majority of the remainder of the two-deep will enter 2020 with significant questions.  Whether that’s because of injury histories, position changes, or because they are new to the program, most of this year’s Red Raiders are going to have to earn our trust on the field before we simply count them as stalwarts of the team.

What’s more, several players who are going to be asked to play significant roles are players that we can see being either a boom or a bust and which way they trend is going to have a massive impact on this upcoming season.  So let’s take a look at five wildcard players that could determine the outcome of Matt Wells’ crucial second season.

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