Texas Tech football: Transfer QB Tyler Shough officially a Red Raider

This week, Oregon transfer QB Tyler Shough officially joined the Texas Tech football program after committing to the Red Raiders a few weeks ago.

Tyler Shough is officially a member of the Texas Tech football program after joining the Red Raiders earlier this week.  While that’s not a huge surprise, it is critical news for a program desperately searching for answers at the QB position.

With the bulk of spring practice remaining on the calendar, the 6-foot-4 Arizona native is now in position to battle for the starting job this fall.  It is believed that his primary competition is true freshman Behren Morton, redshirt freshman Donovan Smith, and junior Henry Colombi.

Many believe that Shough is already the leader for the job given that he’s got the most experience of the group.  He started all seven games for the Ducks in 2020 completing 63.5% of his passes for 1,559 yards with 13 TDs and 6 INTs.

It’s been a while since the Red Raiders have had what feels like a long-term solution at the game’s most important position.  In fact, since Pat Mahomes left for the NFL after the 2016 season, Tech has not had the same player start the majority of the team’s games at QB in back-to-back seasons.

In that time period, we’ve seen Nic Shimonek, McLane Carter, Alan Bowman, Jeff Duffey, Jackson Tyner, and Henry Colombi start games for this program.  None of them proved to be sufficient options.  Of course, none of them were as highly-regarded as prospects as Shough was coming out of high school.

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In the class of 2018, the same class in which Kliff Kingsbury and the Red Raiders signed Bowman, Shough was the No. 140 player in the nation and the No. 7 pro-style QB in the class.  That’s the type of pedigree that gets fans excited and it’s why fans around Raiderland are optimistic about what Shough could bring to the table.

There’s no denying that the QB position is this program’s greatest question mark right now.  Outside of Shough, the only player on the roster who has thrown a pass in a college game is Colombi, who made four starts last fall but who lacks the arm strength to make all the throws that a Big 12 QB must make.

If Tech can find the right player to pull the trigger in the shotgun this year, it is going to be a huge boost to an offense that brings back leading receiver Erik Ezukanma and leading rusher SaRodorick Thompson, as well as an offensive line that has been revamped this offseason via the transfer portal, specifically with All-Big 12 TCU transfer T.J. Storment, one of the Big 12’s best tackles.

The lack of a quality QB was problematic last season.  Tech finished just 33rd nationally in passing yards per game (266.7), which is a number that is unacceptable to modern-day Texas Tech football fans.

What’s more, the offense mustered just 29.1 points per game, 57th-most in the nation and 6th in the Big 12.  It was the first time since the 2000 season (the first year of the Mike Leach era) that the program failed to score over 30 points per game.

We will have to wait until this fall to find out if Shough or any of the other QB candidates can get the offense back to the level that we’ve come to expect during the modern era of the program.  But now that the Oregon transfer is officially a Red Raider, this year’s QB competition can begin in earnest and that’s something to watch over the next few weeks.