Texas Tech football: Could UT game follow a familiar winning script this year?

Texas Tech featured a dominant running back in 2015 and will do so again in 2023

Though Mahomes was the breakout star of college football in 2015, the steadying influence on the offense that year was senior running back Deandre Washington.  Now, in 2023, Tech will again lean heavily on a dominant senior RB, Tahj Brooks.

Brooks is the best Tech running back since Washington.  He’s already run for 1,348 yards and 9 TDs making him the first Red Raider to surpass 1,000 rushing yards since Washington eight years ago.

Meanwhile, in 2015, Washington ended his Red Raider career by posting 1,492 yards and 14 TDs.  And in the win over Texas, he had a monster day.

Rushing 28 times, he racked up 173  yards and a pair of TDs.  However, that performance is often overshadowed by Mahomes’ heroics and the trick play featuring Grant.  Still, without Washington, Tech doesn’t take down UT that night in 2015.

It was one of six games of over 20 carries for Washington that season.  Likewise, Brooks has been a workhorse in 2023.

This year, he has already had seven games of 20+ carries.  That includes four of over 30 rushing attempts.

With two games to play, he could easily surpass Washington’s 2015 rushing total and if he does, it will put him at No. 5 on the program’s single-season all-time rushing yardage list.  No one saw that coming prior to the season.

This year, Brooks will be hard-pressed to match Washington’s big day against Texas, though.  The Horns lead the Big 12 and are top-5 nationally in yards rushing allowed per game.  What’s more, the Horns will likely be focused on stopping him whereas the focus in 2015 had to be on containing Mahomes and the passing attack.

Still, expect Brooks to get the ball early and often in Austin.  If he can have another 100-yard day, he could help carry his team to a win just like Washington did back in 2015.