Texas Tech football: Three backups deserving of game balls vs. KSU

RB Xavier White

It appears that Wells and his offensive coordinator David Yost subscribe to the idea of playing the hot hand at running back rather than simply feeding starter SaRorodirck Thompson all game long.  Thus, when backup Xavier White caught fire in the second half, he became the man that his coaching staff leaned on and he delivered with a career day.

Playing just his second game at running back after being a slot receiver a year ago, the Lubbock native and former Monterey Plainsman went for 113 yards and a TD on 12 carries.  That’s an average of 9.4 yards per attempt.

Of course, his 49-yard TD scamper in the third quarter helped that average significantly.  And it was on that play, where he broke free right up the middle of the defensive line, that his explosiveness was on display and that’s what he brings to this offense; speed.

During the first half, it was Thomspon who got almost all of the carries for the Red Raiders.  But he never seemed to get untracked as he finished the day with 46 yards on 12 attempts.

Thus, when White started to make some noise, he earned more and more carries.  In fact, given how well he and the interior of the offensive line were working together, many feel like White wasn’t utilized enough in the fourth quarter.

"“He was the guy who was going to get the second set of carries,” Wells said after the game, “and he really got hot.  And then I think we rode him for a little bit.  And that’s a credit to our offensive line and [tight end] Travis Koontz. I thought that they really blocked well and coming out of halftime, they paved the way. “But Xavier did some nice stuff, had some nice vision stuff.  He made a couple of nice cuts.  And you saw some of the home run speed he had there at the end.”"

It will be imperative for Tech to build upon Saturday’s strong second-half showing on the ground this week against an Iowa State team that is traditionally tough to run on despite playing only three down linemen for most of the game.  Perhaps White can be the man to join with Thomspon in giving Tech the type of one-two punch needed to churn out yards against the stingy Cyclones.