With legendary quarterback Patrick Mahomes off to the NFL, it would have been fair to expect the Texas Tech offense to struggle a bit. And it is worth noting that the Red Raiders did take a few steps back in a few categories.
Still, there were plenty of yards happening in the passing game for the Red Raiders and Keke Coutee proved he could be incredibly difficult for opposing defenses to try and slow down.
In the one year that Coutee didn’t play with Mahomes, he actually managed to have the most productive season of his career (it’s odd, but also not fully connected to Mahomes leaving, there are plenty of other factors happening in this same timeframe).
But it is worth noting that Nic Shimonek and Coutee were able to connect on plenty of occasions as Coutee became Texas TEch’s leading receiver in 2017.
Texas Tech football history: In the first season following Patrick Mahomes heading to the NFL, Keke Coutee still had over 1000 yards receiving
The 93 receptions that Coutee had that season happened to lead the Red Raiders. Then he managed to put up 1429 receiving yards (which also led the Red Raiders). To go along with all of those receiving yards, Coutee also had 10 touchdown catches (which also led Texas Tech).
Pretty much across the board, Coutee was (by far) the best receiving threat that Kliff Kingsbury had on the 2017 Red Raiders.
And it’s not like Coutee just had big plays on a handful of occasions, he was producing a ton of yards on a regular basis. Coutee averaged 15.4 yards per reception as well as 109.9 receiving yards per game. On five different occasions, Coutee had 100 (or more) receiving yards. He had 186 against Arizona State, 161 vs. Houston, 189 against Kansas State, 168 at Texas, and then 187 vs. USF.