Texas Tech football: WR Erik Ezukanma frustrated with coaches after KU game

Following Saturday’s ugly 16-13 victory over Kansas, wide receiver Erik Ezukanma spoke to the media about his frustrations with the current coaching staff.

When you only beat the worst team in the nation by three points, all is not likely to be well in the locker room and that appeared to be the case for Texas Tech after Saturday’s 16-13 defeat of Kansas in Lubbock.  Most specifically, wide receiver Erik Ezukanma appeared particularly frustrated with the gameplan.

"“Just not knowing what we wanted to do with the ball,” the redshirt sophomore said when asked what was most frustrating about the game.  He went on to point out that after Tech picked up some nice yardage early in the game through the air, the offense went on to center around the ground game for the rest of the afternoon."

For the game, Ezukanma had just a pair of receptions for 20 yards.  That’s not enough work for a player who entered the weekend second in the Big 12 in receptions and yardage.

"“I just felt like, I wasn’t really involved with this win,” Ezukanma said.  “I had two receptions and I’m not going to sit here and act selfish or anything like that.  But I feel like me getting the ball helps out the team a lot more.  And at one point in the game, it was just like, we’re sitting here and we’re literally trying to give Kansas the game and I’m trying to do anything I can in order for them not to win.  And I’m glad we came out with the win but it was kinda ugly.”"

What’s more, no Red Raider had more than four catches on the day and that was running back Xavier White.  It was certainly puzzling that Tech didn’t manage to put more pressure on the Jayhawks given how awful their pass defense has been.

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Entering the game, KU had given up the most passing TDs in the Big 12 (20) and was allowing 236.2 yards per game through the air.  But the Red Raiders threw the ball only 26 times, completing 15 for a mere 117 yards and no scores.

Now in fairness to offensive coordinator David Yost, KU is the worst rushing defense in the Big 12 by giving up 229 yards per game prior to Saturday.  But still, his strategy of running the ball 43 times yielded only 16 points (though it did result in 293 yards), thanks in large part to four turnovers.

One might have thought that the offense might have been ready to explode on the Jayhawks after putting up 639 total yards (384 through the air) a week ago against Oklahoma State, one of the most stingy defenses in the Big 12.

Thus, it is easy to see why Ezukanma would be frustrated with a diminished role in the offense on a day that he likely felt like he would dominate.  He was targeted just seven times on the day and none of those passes were downfield, where Ezukanma is especially lethal.

His frustrations are confirmation for many in the fan base that the offensive scheme needs a change.  In fact, this is the first time in 20 years that Tech has failed to score fewer than 30 points per game and at 266.7 yards per game through the air, the Red Raiders averaged their fewest passing yards per game since going to the spread offense in the 2000 season.

Certainly, anyone who watched this game unfold could tell that Tech was not firing on all cylinders offensively but that’s been a problem for much of 2020.  However, this was the first time that a player has come out and openly questioned the coaching staff’s gameplan.  Now, it is fair to wonder how many other Red Raiders echo Ezukanma’s sentiments and what that means for this team moving into the offseason.