Texas Tech football: Why have the Red Raiders struggled on the road under McGuire?
Texas Tech’s QB injuries contributed to 2022’s road woes
When trying to win away from home, often your QB has to be one of the driving forces behind your team’s triumphant effort. Last year, though, Tech’s QBs had massive struggles away from The Jones, especially when it came to injuries.
While the loss to N.C. State did not come about as a result of an in-game QB injury, it was the first road game of the year with backup QB Donovan Smith taking over for the injured Tyler Shough. While Smith did lead Tech to an OT win over No. 25 Houston in Lubbock the week prior, he was awful against a stingy N.C. State defense going 21-36 for 214 yards with one TD and two picks, one of which was returned for a score. Surely, Tech would have preferred to have Shough calling the signals that night in Raleigh.
In Stillwater, redshirt freshman Behren Morton had to make his first career start due to an injury to Smith. That’s not where any program wants a QB to make his college starting debut.
Morton was excellent though until a leg injury late in the first half changed the trajectory of that contest. On Tech’s first eight drives that day, Morton led the offense to 31 points. But as the injury worsened, he was unable to lead the team to any more points over the course of the final six drives he led. Had he stayed healthy, who knows how that game would have turned out?
A month later, in Fort Worth, that ankle injury still slowed Morton. However, he had guided Tech to a 10-10 tie late into the second quarter before being unable to continue. He was 7/10 passing with a TD when he left. Meanwhile, Shough was forced into his first action since returning from a broken collarbone and he was rusty going just 9/22 for 78 yards with one TD and one pick.
It wasn’t a shock that when Tech won the only road game of the McGuire era thus far, Shough was back to full health and he played the entire game against Iowa State. Though he didn’t light up the scoreboard on a bitterly cold night, he was able to put up 174 total yards and lead his team to the game-winning TD in the fourth quarter.
That was an example of how teams need their QB to lead the way to a win on the road. Maybe this year, Tech’s QB health will not be as much of an issue helping make the road a more manageable proposition.