Texas Tech football: DE Tyree Wilson impresses in his Red Raider debut

Making his Texas Tech football debut on Saturday, transfer defensive end Tyree Wilson was a pass-rushing force.

One of the bright spots from Saturday’s loss to Texas was the emergence of Tyree Wilson, who impressed in his Red Raider debut.  In fact, he showed flashes of dominance the likes of which we haven’t seen from a Tech DE in quite some time.

At first glance, the former Texas A&M Aggie put up stats that don’t really jump off the page.  He was credited with one tackle, which was a sack, and one QB hurry.

But that’s because he didn’t play nearly as much as other Red Raider DEs on Saturday.  However, when he did play, he was one of the most noticeable players on the field.

Most of Wilson’s impact came in the middle of the fourth quarter when Tech was nursing a 42-41 lead.

The first time Wilson’s name was called came with Texas facing a 3rd-and-20 deep in their own territory.  Thus, Tech deployed just a three-man defensive line in order to drop eight men into coverage.

However, that didn’t keep Wilson from getting to the passer.  Looping around from the left defensive end spot on a stunt, he broke through the middle of the UT offensive line for a sack of QB Sam Ehlinger to force a punt.

That play was significant because it was one of the few times that Tech was able to generate much of a pass rush with just three down linemen.  Moving forward, if Wilson can continue to bring pressure as part of a three-man rush, it will make life infinitely easier on the defense as a whole.

The next time UT had the ball, it was again Wilson who came up big on third down.  With the Horns needing 17 yards to keep the drive alive, Wilson rushed again from the left DE position where he collapsed the pocket with a bull rush that forced Ehlinger to step up into the pocket where he was sacked by Eli Howard and Jaylon Hutchings. That’s the type of impact Tech desperately needs from defensive ends other than Howard.

Perhaps this performance was a sign that Wilson is ready for a breakout season as a sophomore.  Last year at A&M, he had only 1.5 sacks and 12 tackles while appearing in 12 games as a true freshman.

Conventional wisdom suggests that players make the greatest gains between their first and second seasons on campus and that’s certainly what we hope Tyree Wilson has done.  He’s a former 4-star signee out of high school who, at 6-foot-6, 280 pounds, has the size and athleticism to dominate the game as he did for a short stretch against UT.  Here’s betting we see more of Wilson on the field this Saturday because Tech has been looking for a player with his skillset for quite some time.