Texas Tech football: 5 areas where Red Raiders must be better in 2021

Turnovers

Speaking of a manner in which the Texas Tech football team lost its share of games in 2020, this season has to be an improvement in the turnover department, especially in giveaways.  If that doesn’t change, the Red Raiders’ fortunes won’t likely be any brighter this fall.

Last season, Wells’ team was just No. 116 overall and No. 10 in the Big 12 in turnover margin.  That included ranking 114th nationally in turnovers lost with 19 in just 10 games.

Turnovers were a tremendous problem last season.  In Tech’s six losses, we saw the good guys give the ball away an average of 1.8 times per game.  Meanwhile, in those games, Tech took the ball away only 1.1 times per game.

The hope is that a new QB, assumedly Oregon transfer Tyler Shough, will help cut down on the number of interceptions the Red Raiders throw this year.  In 2020, Tech QBs threw the ball to the other team 11 times. 1.1 per game.  That ranked 99th in the nation.

But Shough had six interceptions in just seven games himself last year, a number that isn’t sterling.  Thus, he has work to do when it comes to protecting the football.

Still, there is reason to believe that his INTs will drop in his second year as a starter this fall.  After all, a year of experience at the Power 5 level is invaluable for a young passer.

For instance, Patrick Mahomes threw five fewer interceptions in his second full season as a starter than he threw the prior year.  Of course, that’s the last QB Tech has had since 2012 to play back-to-back seasons as the team’s full-time starter so the recent data on what a signal-caller can do in his second year at the helm of an offense is rather limited.

Still, the expectation is that Shough will take better care of the football than last year’s QBs did.  If that proves to be true and Tech can flip the turnover script, it will lead to a much more enjoyable ride this fall.