Texas Tech football: Oregon expert gives lowdown on QB Tyler Shough

Texas Tech football fans may not know much about Tyler Shough so we get the lowdown on the newest Red Raider QB from Oregon expert Justin Phillips.

Just over a week ago, the Texas Tech football program added a commitment from Oregon QB Tyler Shough, who started every game for the Ducks in 2020.  So naturally, fans are trying to learn as much about the newest Red Raider QB as possible in hopes of figuring out what his potential impact could be.

In 11 career games, the 6-foot-5, 221-pounder from Chandler, Arizona has passed for 1,704 yards and run for 282.  In all, he amassed 18 total TDs (16 passing) while being picked off six times.

But let’s look more closely at his 2020 season because that’s the only season he spent as a starter in Eugene, OR.

Remember that the PAC 12 regular-season schedule was just six games this year.  What’s more, the Ducks had a home game against Washington lost to COVID-19 .

Thus, Shough’s lone season as a starter with the Ducks was just seven games long.  But of course, included in those seven games was a PAC 12 championship and a bowl appearance so Shough and his teammates did manage to accomplish something in a year when expectations may not have been as high as they usually are for that program.

For the year, Shough averaged 228.4 yards passing per game and his pass efficiency rating was 160.4.  For context, Alan Bowman (who started six games in 2020) averaged 230.3 yards per start while compiling an average passer rating of just 118 in those games.

But to say that the expectations for Shough were higher than they have been for Bowman is an understatement.  That’s because the former was a 4-star prospect and the No. 140 player in the nation in the class of 2018 according to the 247Sports composite rankings.  That was 759 places higher than Bowman was ranked in that same class.

Now the two will forever be linked as Shough comes to Lubbock expecting to get every opportunity to be Bowman’s replacement as the Texas Tech starter.  But if he couldn’t hold down the job in Eugene, is he capable of doing so for the Red Raiders?  Is he the next star QB at a school that was once known for its yearly star power at that spot?  Can he be the answer for a program that hasn’t been able to find a solution at the game’s most important position since Pat Mahomes bolted for the NFL after the 2016 season?

To start answering some of those questions, we reached out to Justin Phillips, the site expert at AutzenZoo.com, the Oregon FanSided site.  And we started by asking the question that just about every Red Raider fan wanted to know the moment Shough committed to the program.