4.0 yards per carry
Colombi’s first career start is the main Texas Tech storyline entering Saturday. But while every Red Raider fan will eagerly watch to see what the new leader of the offense will do, his success may ride on how well Texas Tech can run the football because there’s no better way to help an inexperienced QB than to keep the ball on the ground.
It will be tough though for the Red Raiders to chew up yards on the ground against the top statistical defense in the nation. After all, the Mountaineers are allowing opponents to rush for an average of just 2.7 yards per carry on the season.
Still, Tech should strive to average 4.0 yards per rush. If they can do that, they can follow the formula used by the only team to best the Mountaineers this year,
Remember that when Oklahoma State beat WVU 27-13 in the season’s second game, the Cowboys were also starting a QB who had never started a game at the college level. Due to an ankle injury to their QB1 Spencer Sanders, OSU had to give the start that day to true freshman Shane Illingworth.
So to help make his life easier, the Cowboys relied heavily on their ground game. Averaging 5.0 yards per carry, OSU ran the ball 41 times for 203 yards and two TDs.
Of course, the difference between the Cowboys and the Red Raiders is that OSU has arguably the nation’s top running back Chuba Hubbard. While Tech doesn’t have a running back of his ilk, they do need to try to lean heavily on SaRodorick Thompson and Xavier White, a tandem that has yet to have solid showings in the same contest this season. But if they can churn out some yards on Saturday, Colombi won’t have to be a hero against the Big 12’s stoutest defense in his first career start.