Texas Tech football: Special teams will be critically important vs. KSU
Just about any coach who has ever lived has spent considerable time talking about the importance of the kicking game to the point that such an idea has become cliche. But this week, if the Texas Tech football team hopes to end its recent run of misfortune against Kansas State, the special teams are going to have to be on point.
Entering this contest, one could argue that no team in the Big 12 has had better play from the kick-return game than the Wildcats. That’s due mainly to the play of wide receiver Malik Knowles II who averages 36.00 yards per kickoff return this season. What’s more, he’s already returned two kickoffs for scores in 2021.
As a result, no team in the league is averaging more than the 32 yards per kickoff return that KSU currently averages. Thus, Tech is going to have to be more than steady in the kickoff game.
The good news for the Red Raiders is that kicker Trey Wolff has been particularly adept at kicking the ball into the endzone so far. In fact, in 45 kickoffs, he’s amassed 30 touchbacks. Additionally, the longest kickoff return Matt Wells’ team has allowed this year has been 38 yards.
However, during this series, it has felt like KSU has made a big play in the kicking game on almost an annual basis. And time and again those plays have seemingly turned the tide in the Wildcats’ favor.
Last year, on top of the fact that the Red Raiders missed two makeable field goals in what would eventually be a 31-21 KSU triumph, Tech allowed the Wildcats to block a first-quarter punt. Setting the KSU offense up at the Red Raider 16, the Cats would score three plays later to take an early 7-0 lead.
In 2019, Joshua Youngblood of Kansas State would return a kickoff 100 yards for a critical third-quarter TD to push his team’s lead to 20-10, a margin that the Wildcats would ultimately protect in a 30-27 win.
The year before that, on a miserably cold day in Manhattan, Kansas, Tech had another punt blocked by the Wildcats. Resulting in a safety, this block set up the Wildcats with a 12-6 lead in the third quarter on their way to a 21-6 win.
Even in the 2015 version of this series, the last time Tech beat the Wildcats, KSU returned a kickoff 93 yards for a first-quarter TD. Fortunately, that did not prevent Tech from bringing home a 59-44 win.
The point is that the Red Raiders are going to have to play a clean game in the kicking game on Saturday if they hope to win and become bowl eligible. And head coach Matt Wells emphasized the danger of the KSU return game when speaking to the media earlier this week.
"“They’ve got some guys in the special teams that keep you up at night,” Wells said. “We’re going to have to do a good job — a very, very good job — in that phase of the game this week.”"
Should Tech play a solid game in all three aspects this weekend and come out on top, it would put an end to KSU’s current 5-game winning streak against the Red Raiders. And it would give Tech six wins, which would qualify Well’s team for a bowl, something that is almost mandatory for the head coach to keep his job.
But that likely won’t happen in this even matchup if KSU continues to dominate the special teams the way they have in recent years when facing Texas Tech. So though it might be cliche, what happens on the third side of the football this week will be of critical importance because it’s an area where this game could be decided in the blink of an eye.