Texas Tech football: QB change opportunity for David Yost to alter fan perception

Many fans are unhappy with the job Texas Tech football offensive coordinator David Yost has done but the change of starting QBs provides him an opportunity to prove his value.

There’s simply no denying that Texas Tech offensive coordinator David Yost resembles the character Harry Dunne played by Jeff Daniels in the 1994 comedy classic “Dumb and Dumber”.  But lately, Red Raider fans have felt like Yost not only has the haircut that Daniels had in that film, he’s also been living up to its title when it comes to the way he’s called plays.

Texas Tech football fans have come to believe over the past 20 years that it is our birthright to have high-powered and exciting offenses.  So when Matt Wells was hired as head coach, most fans immediately began clambering for him to bring David Yost with him from Utah State to coordinate the Red Raider offense.

It was easy to see why.  Not only did Yost have a reputation for working with eventual NFL quarterbacks Chase Daniel, Blaine Gabbert, and Brad Smith his time at Missouri as well as current Los Angeles Chargers’ starter Justin Herbert while at Oregon, but he also had built an offense in Logan that was among the most explosive in the nation.

In 2018, the Aggies ranked second in the NCAA in scoring at a whopping 47.5 yards per game.  What’s more, they were fun to watch as they ranked 14th in plays of 20 yards or more with 81.

Thus, Red Raider fans had visions of exploding scoreboards and a wide-open offense dancing in our heads when Yost agreed to join Wells in Lubbock.  But unfortunately, his results haven’t matched his reputation over the past 16 games.

Reasonable fans do have to give Yost some credit for his work in 2019.  After all, he lost starting QB Alan Bowman after the season’s third game, and yet he was still able to coax a Jett Duffey led offense to a No. 11 finish nationally in total yards per game (474.3).  What’s more, he was able to tame the turnover-prone Duffey as the junior signal-caller committed just five turnovers in nine games as QB1.

But this year, the Red Raider offense has suddenly hit the skids.  After a nice start to the year that saw Tech average 49 points and 532.5 yards per game against Houston Baptist and Texas, the last two games have seen the offense look woefully mediocre…and that’s being kind.

Against K-State and Iowa State, Tech averaged just 26 points and 370.5 yards.  What’s more, the struggles hit their peak last weekend in Ames when the Red Raiders had just 97 yards of offense through the first three quarters of the game.

While much of the blame goes to QB Alan Bowman, there is plenty for Yost to shoulder as well.  First of all, his insistence on staying exclusively in 11 personnel (1 running back and 1 tight end) not only limits what he can do as a play-caller, but it also keeps him from putting some of his most talented players on the field together.

For instance, Imagine what the offense could do if running backs SaRodorick Thompson and Xavier White lined up together in the backfield.  That would place a huge burden on opposing defensive coordinators, especially given White’s background as a former slot receiver.   Likewise, this team has a glut of talented slot receivers but Yost refuses to ever put two on the field together at the same time.

Then there is Yost’s complete lack of creativity when it comes to the design of his scheme.  Tech rarely uses pre-snap motion or out of the ordinary formations to force the defense’s hand.  Rather, it seems like the rush to snap the ball as quickly as possible prevents Yost from being able to utilize some of the pre-snap tactics that make other play-callers in the game so successful.

Now, fans across Raiderland have begun calling for Yost’s job.  They point out that Bowman has not improved under his guidance and they are frustrated with the offense’s lack of punch against two programs in Kansas State and Iowa State that have had the Red Raiders’ number for the last five years now.

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But Yost now has an opportunity to prove his value to the fans and re-establish himself as one of the game’s top offensive gurus.  That’s because if he can take a Henry Colombi-led offense and turn it into one that is among the best in the Big 12, it will speak volumes about his ability to build and coordinate an offense.  And it would be the second-straight year in which he’s salvaged some success when tasked with having to rely on his backup QB.

With all due respect to Colombi, he isn’t the second coming of Graham Harrell or Pat Mahomes.  He lacks the type of arm strength that elite passers have and he uses cunning and grit just as much as pure passing ability to move the football.

But where he might be a better fit for Yost is when it comes to his legs.  That’s because Yost’s offense is built to feature a dual-threat QB that can keep opposing defenses honest with the threat of the run.  Of course, that’s not what Bowman is capable of doing.

When Yost had his best offense with Utah State in 2018, he had dual-threat Jordan Love running the show.  That year, the eventual first-round pick of the Green Bay Packers in the 2020 NFL Draft was able to run for 175 yards on 81 carries (2.2 yards per carry).  While that’s not Lamar Jackson type of numbers, it was enough to give the Aggies an extra dimension to their attack.

Yost likes to rely heavily on run/pass options that are designed to take advantage of what the defense decides to do along the defensive line.  If the end crashes down, the QB is supposed to keep the ball but if the end stays home, he is to hand it off to the running back.

The problem is that opposing teams knew that Bowman simply was not going to keep the ball on those plays and that allowed the defensive ends to crash the line of scrimmage as soon as they saw Bowman put the ball into the belly of his RB.

Colombi is more than willing to run with the football.  Already this year, he’s run for 51 yards on 14 carries (3.6 yards per attempt).  Meanwhile, for his career, Bowman has run for a total of just 21 yards in 15 games.  (Keep in mind that sacks count as negative rushing yards but still, he’s never going to be a dual-threat QB.)

Perhaps Colombi’s legs will open up Yost’s offense like we’ve never seen during his time at Texas Tech.  While at Utah State, he had Love do some creative things where his mobility came into play as an asset.  But last year, he was so afraid of Duffey being hurt while running the ball (because Tech was down to just one healthy scholarship QB), that he wasn’t able to use the most elite skill Duffey had going for him, his ability to chew up yards on the ground.

Colombi looks to be a much better fit in Yosts’ scheme than Bowman.  Remember also, that he has two years of experience under Yost while at Utah State and he was recruited as a player that Yost thought would function well in his system.  Meanwhile, Bowman is a seemingly ill-fitting hand-me-down from the Kingsbury era.

So even those Red Raider fans who may be convinced that Yost is over-hyped and needs to be replaced should enter next weekend’s game against West Virginia with as much of an open mind as they can muster.  There’s reason to believe that this offense will finally look like Yost wants it to with Colombi at the helm and if that change at QB proves to be the key to unlocking his scheme, we might start to see Yost in a different light and not picture him riding on the back of a scooter with Jim Carrey through the streets of Aspen.