Texas Tech football: RBs, O-line deserve game balls for victory over Cougars

Texas Tech LB Bryce Ramirez helped calm the defense down in the second half

For most of this season, linebacker Bryce Ramirez has been just an inspirational story.  His return from last season’s gruesome broken leg has been a testament to his perseverance and grit but he had not made an impact in any games.

The senior entered play on Saturday with only nine tackles in four games.  That’s because he was primarily being used as an edge rusher where he was playing only sparingly behind Josep Adedire, Myles Cole, and Steve Linton.

In this game, though, he was asked to play middle linebacker and though he didn’t start the game, he made quite an impact in his new role.  With Tech having to rely on two freshmen, Ben Roberts and Miquel Dingle, to help man that spot with Jesiah Pierre and Jacob Rodriguez unavailable, it was not pretty in the middle of the defense in the first half as numerous busts and misreads by the freshmen helped contribute to 28 Houston points.

In the second half, Ramirez was on the field far more and it is no coincidence that the defense started to play much better with his calming presence on the field.

For the game, Ramirez was only credited with two tackles.  What’s more, he dropped what should have been a key intervention.

However, he was active and noticeable on a day when the defense needed someone to step up.  Ramirez was always in a position to make a play and that’s nothing to take for granted given that he was playing a new role.

After the game, McGuire said that Pierre would return next week against Baylor, and earlier in the week, he said that Rodriguez could be back for the week after when Tech hosts K-State.  However, Ramirez might get more looks at middle LB because he made more of an impact there than he has as an edge rusher thus far in 2023.  Though his stats won’t jump off the page, his presence was a big reason why Tech settled down and put the clamps on Houston after halftime.