Texas Tech football: Receivers, o-line, Donovan Smith stand out against Murray St.

The starting offensive line was spectacular

Playing together for the first time and playing with three new starters and four of the five starters in new positions, it would have been understandable if the offensive line would have had a few hiccups early on.  After all, it takes only one person among the five to blow an assignment for a play, and potentially a drive, to be ruined.

However, Tech’s rebuilt front five was spectacular in its debut.  The Red Raiders allowed only one sack all night and that came late in the game when third-string QB Behren Morton and the second-and-third offensive line were in the game.  While the regular o-line was playing, the Red Raider QBs had what seemed like hours to throw the ball on just about every drop-back.  In fact, Murray State was credited with just one QB hurry for the entire game.

On the ground, Tech’s big boys were also dominant.  The team averaged 4.6 yards per rush on 29 carries for a total of 133 yards.

"“I was really proud of the o-line,” McGuire said, “especially the 1s…The first time you ever go against somebody else you really don’t know how much stronger you became because we’ve just been hitting each other so much.  It was good to hit somebody else and I thought besides a couple of plays, that really, we could have checked out of, I thought that the offensive line did a great job tonight run blocking and pass blocking.”"

Certainly, the tests will grow tougher as the season progresses but this was a perfect start for a position group that many Red Raider fans feared would be a weakness on this year’s team.  In fact, it was one of the more dominant o-line performances we’ve seen from this program in recent memory.