Handing out game balls for Texas Tech's week one win over Abilene Christian

Alright, enough of the negativity. Let's look at some positives from Saturday's week-one win over Abilene Christian.

Sure, the 52-51 overtime loss was tough to watch and left plenty of areas of concern moving forward. However, there were some Red Raiders who came up big against the Wildcats to help ensure that the program didn't drop a game to an FCS opponent.

For instance, tight end Jalin Conyers was solid in his first outing as a Red Raider. The Arizona State transfer caught five passes for 63 yards and one remarkable touchdown.

Another first-year transfer, Caleb Douglas, was also impactful. He hauled in four passes for 42 yards and a critical touchdown in overtime.

On defense, Jacob Rodriguez led the team with 13 tackles while corner Maurion Horn had 11 in his first career start. However, given the struggles of the defense, we simply can't hand out any game balls to that unit.

So let's look at the players who came up the biggest in week one. And we'll start with a dynamic Red Raider who earned a Big 12 honor for his performance.

Drae McCray was fantastic when returning kicks

This week, the Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week is Texas Tech kick returner Drae McCray. He was truly electric against Abilene Christian averaging 55.0 yards per return on three kickoff returns.

In the first quarter, his 74-yard return set up the Red Raiders at the ACU 28. Tech didn't do much after that, though, picking up only five yards before Gino Garcia hit a 39-yard field goal.

Then, with Tech leading 39-28 in the second quarter, McCray brought back another kickoff 65 yards to the ACU 35. On the ensuing play, Tech would score a TD thanks to a flea-flicker executed by Behren Morton and Josh Kelly.

Last year, McCray was one of the nation's best kick returners averaging 27.6 yards per return and scoring one TD on 26 attempts. That earned him All-Big 12 recognition and now he's off to an even better start in 2024.

Josh Kelly lived up to the hype in his Texas Tech debut

Though the Red Raiders as a whole didn't live up to the offseason hype in week one, an individual player who did was Washington State transfer Josh Kelly. In fact, it could be argued that he had one of the best debuts in program history.

Catching 10 passes, he racked up 156 yards and a TD. His ten receptions were a new career-high and he came up just three yards short of matching his career-high in yards.

It was encouraging to see the newcomer find a way to develop a rapport with QB Behren Morton in their first-ever game together. Targeted 15 times, Kelly came up with a catch on 66.6% of the passes thrown his way.

What's more, he averaged 15.6 yards per reception. That was refreshing to see given that the Red Raiders were so pedestrian in 2023 when it came to making big plays in the passing game.

Behren Morton looked fully healthy in his 2024 Texas Tech debut

Next, we give a game ball to Behren Morton who had a fantastic game at quarterback. Completing 30-42 passes (71.4%) for 378 yards and five TDs, he had a QB rating of 186.3.

Morton's five touchdown passes were a career-high. What's more, three of them were of 35 yards or longer.

That's important because it shows that he was able to push the ball deep down the field. Of course, that's something he struggled to do last season when he played with a sprained throwing shoulder.

What's more, Morton's mobility helped save the day for the Red Raiders. In overtime, as Tech faced a 3rd-and-11, Morton rolled to his left after being flushed out of the pocket. Throwing across his body, he found Douglas for the game-winning score. That's likely a play that he wouldn't have been healthy enough to make last year. It was good to see Morton at full health because it reminded Texas Tech fans just how good he is when he isn't slowed by an injury.