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Texas Tech football: Players that might surprise in 2020

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TX - SEPTEMBER 29: The Texas Tech Red Raiders take the field before the game against the Kansas Jayhawks on September 29, 2016 at AT&T Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech won the game 55-19. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TX - SEPTEMBER 29: The Texas Tech Red Raiders take the field before the game against the Kansas Jayhawks on September 29, 2016 at AT&T Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech won the game 55-19. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /
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General view of footballs before the game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Kansas Jayhawks on September 29, 2016 at AT&T Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech won the game 55-19. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
General view of footballs before the game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Kansas Jayhawks on September 29, 2016 at AT&T Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech won the game 55-19. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

If given the opportunity, these Texas Tech football players may prove to be pleasant surprises in 2020.

It seems almost every year that a player or two comes out of nowhere to surprise Texas Tech football fans.  It’s one of the most fun aspects of following the sport as we learn about new contributors who were essentially afterthoughts during fall camp.

Perhaps the best example of that came in 2018 when Antoine Wesley went nuts after finally getting a chance to be a starter.  Entering the year with just 10 catches for 137 yards in his career, he put up 1,410 yards and 9 TDs on 88 grabs to earn recognition as a Biletnikoff Award semifinalist.  And it didn’t take him long to become a household name around Raiderland as he set the school record with 261 yards in the third game of the year, a win over Houston.

That same season, his QB, Alan Bowman, was also a surprise early contributor.  Just a mid-level 3-star prospect when he signed with Tech in February of that year, he was hardly discussed by the fan base in fall camp.

But when week-one starter McLane Carter went down with an ankle injury in the first quarter of Tech’s 47-27 loss to Ole Miss, Bowman was thrust into action and he equipped himself as well as any freshman could have given the situation.  Two games later, he would set the Big 12 freshman passing record with 605 yards and 5 TDs against Houston as he and Wesley combined to keep the Cougars at bay in a critical early-season contest.

Last fall, hardly anyone knew the name of redshirt freshman OL Weston Wright but by the end of the season, he had become one of Tech’s most important players.  Taking over at right guard for the injured Jack Anderson, Wright made himself one of the backbones of the offensive line by performing at a surprisingly high level when called upon to step in for an All-Big 12 player, and now, he the left guard of the present and the future in Lubbock.

Of course, in 2014, an under-the-radar QB who (like Bowman) had been only a 3-star signee also took the Big 12 by storm as a true freshman.  Starting the final four games of the year for Davis Webb, some guy named Pat Mahomes threw for 1,428 yards, 14 TDs, and only two picks as he came from nowhere to take over the starting QB job.

Those are just four examples of Red Raiders taking us all by surprise in recent seasons and we could point to several more in the last two decades of the program but we won’t belabor the point.  Rather, we will take a look forward at some candidates to be this year’s surprise stars for the Texas Tech football team.

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