Jakeem Grant was on the business end of two wild plays
On a night when he would become Texas Tech’s all-time leading receiver, Jakeem Grant would put his stamp on this game in a huge way. But while one of the two signature plays he was involved in was a product of incredible design, the other came about due to incredible fortune.
The game was just 3-0 in favor of the home team well into the second quarter thanks in large part to the sloppy conditions. Thus, it seemed as if only an act of divine intervention would get the scoring started for the Red Raiders.
On 2nd-and-10 from the Red Raider 35, Mahomes would drop back and loft a deep ball in the direction of outside receiver Devin Lauderdale. But the ball was a bit underthrown allowing a Texas defensive back to get his hands on it for what appeared to be a sure-fire Longhorn interception.
However, Lauderdale would make a heads-up play and turn into a defensive player and lay the wood to the would-be interceptor causing the ball to become dislodged. Fortunately for the Red Raiders, the ball would pop into the air and land in the hands of Grant who would scurry untouched into the endzone for a 65-yard TD.
That play would get Tech on the board and in addition, it seemed to settle Mahomes and the offense down. In fact, Tech would go on to post ten more points in the quarter.
On most nights, that play would be what we remember Jakeem Grant for. But in this wild affair, Grant would have another signature moment, one that would, in fact, be his career-defining play.
With 2:41 to play in the game, Tech held a tenuous 41-38 lead. And with the ball at the UT 40, Kingsbury would take a game-changing gamble.
Calling a play he would later reveal was known as “Little People Big World”, named after a popular reality show, Kingsbury would have Mahomes hand the ball to Grant, who had crouched down behind the offensive line to hide. While Mahomes and the rest of the offense would carry out a fake to the offense’s right, Grant would scurry around the left side of the line breaking into the secondary before UT ever knew he had the ball. 40 yards later, Grant would be in the endzone and the game would be tilted in Tech’s favor.
Though UT would score a TD on the ensuing drive, Tech would recover a UT onside kick to seal the win and it was Grant’s TD run that will forever be the hallmark moment of this game. And ironically for the program’s all-time leading receiver, his greatest moment as a Red Raider would come on the ground.