Texas Tech football: A first look at Houston Baptist

Saturday, the Texas Tech football team will face Houston Baptist in Lubbock so let’s take a first look at the Huskies.

Game week for the Texas Tech football program has finally arrived.  How beautiful are those words?   And though this weekend’s opponent does little in the way of generating much excitement, at this point, we’d all tune in even to see the Red Raiders take on Cavazos Junior High’s “B” team.

Certainly, Houston Baptist is coming to Lubbock this weekend with two goals in mind; don’t get hurt and collect the check.  That’s because this FCS walking stands little chance of actually threatening the Red Raiders unless something goes woefully wrong for Matt Wells’ program.

This past weekend, HBU faced off with North Texas, a team nowhere as deep or as talented as Tech, and fell 57-31.  That result did little to convince anyone that Saturday’s contest is going to be anything more than a medieval-style execution.

Thus, one goal for the Red Raiders is actually going to be rather similar to that of Houston Baptist, don’t get hurt.  Their other goal is to simply get their sea legs under them after the most unusual of offseasons.

We will be watching not as much to see who wins the game but to find out just what we might have on our hands this year from the Red Raiders.  And there will be numerous position groups to keep an eye on.

Obviously, that begins with the quarterbacks.  We will want to see if Alan Bowman will be back to his pre-injury self and how he operates in the pocket after two-straight years of injuries.  But perhaps more important will be the performances of the backup QBs, Henrey Colombi and Maverick McIvor.  Assuming both play this week, the intrigue will surround whether either is able to distinguish himself as the No. 2 option on the depth chart.

The men protecting those QBs will also be worth watching, especially the two tackles.  That’s because Tech is going to be breaking in new starters at both right and left tackle.  We still don’t know who will start but regardless of which players trot out there with the first team, they will be undergoing a pseudo job interview against the Huskies as Tech needs to find some answers before Texas comes to Lubbock on September 26.

The secondary will be of particular interest this weekend as well.  We will get into the details a bit later but the Huskies put up some nice numbers through the air against the Mean Green this past weekend and they could pose a decent early test for a Red Raider secondary that is looking to rebound from an abysmal 2019.  This weekend, pay particular attention to the performance of both safeties as they will each be new to the starting lineup.

But for now, let’s take a look at the Houston Baptist Huskies to figure out what they might bring to the table in this season opener.  And we will begin by taking a look at that Husky passing attack.