The biggest storyline coming out of Texas Tech's 37-24 loss to Cincinnati on Saturday was the ineptitude of the offense, which scored only one garbage-time touchdown against one of the worst defenses in the nation. Of course, the main reason for those offensive woes was the horrible play of starting QB Will Hammond, who was just 24-37 for 227 yards with no touchdowns and an interception.
That performance was a dreadful regression just one week after Hammond played the best game of his college career in a victory over Arizona State. Now, scrutiny on the QB situation for the Red Raiders has been ramped up, and based on what head coach Joey McGuire and offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich told the media Monday, it appears both are bungling the game's most important position.
Hammond has not developed the way most believed he would. Sure, given that he missed most of the offseason practices and workouts recovering from a torn ACL, it was expected that he would need time to ramp up. But over halfway through his first season as a starter, he's showing few signs of figuring it out.
"Rollercoaster," McGuire said when asked to evaluate Hammond thus far. "You get a lot of ups and downs. You get a great first half against Arizona State, and then you don't have a great game against Cincinnati. It happens some with young quarterbacks, but it doesn't matter. Nobody cares. Nobody cares how I feel. Nobody cares how he feels."
What's concerning is that this coaching staff seems at a loss as to how to handle the QB room. For instance, when it was obvious to everyone that Hammond was not going to lead the offense to success against the Bearcats, McGuire and Leftwich simply let him play out the game and continue to make bad reads and awful decisions instead of giving backup Tommy Castellanos an opportunity to move the ball.
"...that was a total failure on my part," McGuire said, "not putting him in the game and seeing what he could do. And two, I do think, you go into the Arizona State game, and you have a quarterback that played a lot better, and we felt like he was growing, and you go into the Cincinnati game and, for whatever reason, you take a step back there."
If there was ever a time to see what Castellanos could do as a full-field QB rather than as just a red-zone specialist, it was against Cincinnati. There was no indication that Hammond had any hope of figuring out the Cincy defense, so what was there to lose by giving Castellanos some run?
Tech was down 24-6 at halftime, so Castellanos wouldn't have put his team in any bigger of a hole, regardless of what he did. What's more, his ability to make things happen off script might have been the spark the offense needed on a day when it was clear the game plan was abysmal.
It isn't as if Hammond has earned the right to finish every game he's started. After all, he isn't Patrick Mahomes or Peyton Manning. Pulling him wouldn't have been an insult to a legendary player. Rather, it would have been a logical move given the way Hammond played against a defense that entered the game as the third-worst in America against the pass.
Later in the press conference, Leftwich gave another reason for not playing Castellanos. But it didn't make Tech fans feel any better.
"A lot of that had to do with him not being there for the two weeks with Colorado and Arizona State," he said, "and the uncertainty there, and then Will playing his best game against Arizona State. And so, [we were] feeling comfortable with [Hammond] doing some things with his legs and having shown against Arizona State that we can put the ball in the end zone down in the red zone.
"You know, hindsight is 20/20, and we probably wish we had some stuff dialed up for him down there this past week. That was kind of the thought process going into this week, letting Will finish up some of those drives."
Castellanos didn't play because he missed two games after being ruled ineligible by a court? That's like saying that a player who missed two games with an injury shouldn't go back into the lineup when healthy because he missed two weeks of practice.
Castellanos was eligible and went through a full week of preparation for Cincinnati. He was in the same meetings and practices as Hammond. While he didn't get first-team practice reps, he certainly had to have some offensive packages that he could run.
What would have happened if Hammond had been injured? Castellanos would have played. Given the way that Hammond performed on Saturday, it should have been a similar situation, and Castellanos should have seen the field. Again, what was there to lose?
Also, during Monday's press availability, McGuire made a strange admission that has Tech fans scratching their heads. He admitted that the offensive strategy is going to be altered to help out Will Hammond.
"You do start cutting full-field reads down to a lot of half-field reads," he said, "which is a lot of college football."
While that plan is understandable, why in the world would a head coach admit that in a public setting? Now, the Arizona defensive coaches have some insight as to what Tech will try to do this coming weekend.
While McGuire obviously didn't reveal what schemes or plays will be run, he did give the Arizona coaches a leg up on their planning. Now that they know that Tech will cut the field in half for Hammond, they can start to look for tells and tendencies in the Red Raider offense and then design their coverages to dictate the side of the field that they want the play to run to. They can also roll coverages to Tech's top wide receiver, Kenny Johnson, and more easily take him out of the equation.
It has been a comedy of errors at the QB position the past week-plus. McGuire and Leftwich are not handling the situation well, and that's causing Texas Tech fans to be less than confident that things will improve this season.
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