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Texas Tech football: Handing out game balls for HBU game

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TX - SEPTEMBER 29: 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)
LUBBOCK, TX - SEPTEMBER 29: 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) /
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Supporters of the Texas Tech Red Raiders celebrate after a failed fourth down attempt by the Houston Baptist Huskies during the first half of the college football game on September 12, 2020 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
Supporters of the Texas Tech Red Raiders celebrate after a failed fourth down attempt by the Houston Baptist Huskies during the first half of the college football game on September 12, 2020 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /

RB SaRodorick Thompson

Sad as it is to think about, Texas Tech wouldn’t have survived this scare from an FCS team had it not been for the work of SaRodorick Thompson on the ground.  With 118 yards and two TDs on 22 carries, he was the man the Red Raiders turned to when the game was on the line.

On the final two drives of the game, as Tech was trying to run out the clock, Thompson carried the ball seven times for 42 yards.  That’s an average of six yards per rush.

Though we didn’t expect to need a hero against HBU, the fact that this team knows where it can turn for tough yards is important.  And it was also refreshing to see the Red Raider ground game come through in a critical moment.

Thompson is expected to be this year’s workhorse RB after running for 765 yards and 12 TDs last year as a redshirt freshman.  Saturday, he looked the part.

On the first play of the game, run out of a wing-T formation to honor later Texas Tech football director of operations, Tommy McVay, he picked up 14 yards.  Two drives later, he capped off his team’s second scoring drive with a 5-yard TD.  On that series, Thompson carried the ball four times for 29 yards.

It is expected to be a big year for Thompson and many think he could be one of the Big 12’s most productive backs.  What we saw from his in week one certainly backed up those expectations.

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