While the Texas Tech Red Raiders are generally a college football program that is known for putting up points, Joey McGuire’s teams haven’t always done a great job of that. But, former Texas Tech offensive coordinator Zach Kittley managed to orchestrate an offense that truly thrived (and bailed out the Red Raiders’ ineffective defense) throughout the 2024 season.
I mean, we’re not talking about eight wins and a bowl game appearance if Kittley’s offense doesn’t scorch opposing defenses on a regular basis during the 2024 season. And that is a bit alarming when looking back.
And it’s also one reason that, as we explore the Texas Tech football record book and check out some of the most impressive offenses that the Red Raiders have had since 2000, we absolutely have to acknowledge and admire what Kittley and McGuire were able to get from the Red Raiders offense in 2024.
Texas Tech football history: The Red Raiders had a delightfully productive offense in 2024
On offense, the Red Raiders were able to score 37.6 points per game all while accumulating 462.7 total yards of offense per game. And again, it truly was a great thing that Texas Tech had the No. 4 scoring offense in the country this year.
Why, you might ask?
Well, uh, in case you’ve forgotten, the Red Raiders allowed opponents to average 34.8 points per game and 460.2 total yards of offense per game. If you want to do the math, you’ll find that the defense was flat out bad. Really bad. Like allowing FCS member Abilene Christian to score 51 points sort of bad.
But you know who wasn’t bad? Behren Morton, who stepped up and the Red Raiders with their first 3000 yard single season passer in years. Oh, and there’s Josh Kelly, who became the first wide receiver under McGuire to get 1000 yards receiving in a single season.
And we can’t forget Tahj Brooks, who joined a pretty elite club when he ran for over 1500 yards during the 2024 season.
Those guys rocked. The defense? Not so much. The defense was bad. Very, very bad. And the Red Raiders have since taken notable (and very, very necessary) strides to improve in that area.