Texas Tech football: 3 Red Raiders that have been pleasant surprises in 2020

Though the 2020 Texas Tech football season hasn’t gotten off to a great start, these three Red Raiders have been pleasant surprises thus far.

Every year, players that we weren’t expecting much of seem to come from out of nowhere to surprise us.  That’s what makes college football great.

For instance, in 2019, a number of Red Raiders made remarkable and unexpected jumps after being rather unheralded in the offseason.

There was inside receiver Dalton Rigdon who caught 34 passes for 486 yards and five TDs after entering the season with just three career receptions.  The former walk-on who once ran track for Wes Kittley’s program in Lubbock averaged 14.3 yards per catch last year and finished second on the team in touchdown receptions despite missing the final two games of the season.

On defense, Jaylon Hutchings made a huge step forward as a redshirt freshman.  Entering last fall with just two career tackles, the 300-pound defensive lineman eventually played his way into a starting role and he finished the season with 26 tackles (3.0 for loss), which was second among defensive linemen behind only Broderick Washington.

But perhaps 2019’s greatest surprise contributor was wide receiver RJ Turner.  When he transferred to Tech from Louisiana-Monroe, the news didn’t make much of a splash given that Red Raider fans were expecting T.J. Vasher and Erik Ezukanma to man the outside receiver positions. However, by the end of the year, Turner had become Tech’s leading weapon on the outside and he finished the season first on the team in receptions (45) and second in receiving yards (654) while finding the endzone three times.

Of course, his breakout season pales in comparison to what we saw the previous year from Antoine Wesley.  Entering 2018, the lanky wide receiver, who had bounced back and forth from slot receiver to outside receiver during his career, had just 10 career catches for 137 yards.  He would obliterate those numbers in his junior season as he finished the year with 88 receptions for 1,410 yards and 9 TDs to earn recognition as a Biletnikoff Award semifinalist.

Throwing many of those passes his way that year was another surprise contributor, Alan Bowman.  Though it may seem strange to think about given how much time we’ve spent discussing the Grapevine native in the last three years, when 2018 opened, no one expected much from the former 3-star signee.

It was assumed that either McLane Carter or Jett Duffey were going to win the starting QB job (and Carter did just that to open the season) and few fans really thought Bowman had a shot at seeing much playing time at all as a freshman.  But that all changed in the first quarter of the season opener against Ole Miss when Carter suffered a high ankle sprain.

Bowman, not Duffey, was the man Kliff Kingsbury turned to in Carter’s absence and that proved to be a wise decision at the time.  The young QB opened eyes with his accuracy and poise on his way to 2,683 yards and 17 TD passes in his first season of college football.

Though the sine has since worn off of Bowman in a major way, he is a reminder that each year, new faces are going to come from out of nowhere to make an impact.  And that’s been the case in 2020 as the following Red Raiders have been rather pleasant surprises through four games.