Texas Tech fans shouldn't expect to see more Micah Hudson in week three

When a team struggles to begin the season the way the Texas Tech football program has in the first two weeks of 2024, fans naturally begin to grow restless. Certainly, those who live and die by what the Red Raiders do on the football field have had a number of areas to be discontented with thus far.

One of the main areas of complaint has been the lack of playing time for freshman wide receiver Micah Hudson, a five-star signee in the class of 2024 and the highest-ranked player to ever sign with the Red Raiders. Through two games, Hudson has caught only one pass for five yards, his only target of the season. That's far from what Tech fans expected to see from the Temple, Texas native coming into this fall.

While much of the expectations surrounding Hudson came about because of his national recruiting ranking (he was the No. 16 overall player and No. 4 wide receiver in the nation in his recruiting class according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings), the reality is that Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire accelerated the hype train during the offseason by repeatedly pumping up Hudson and even calling him a "generational" player on multiple occasions.

McGuire even promised that we would see plenty of Hudson right out of the gates. However, in week one, he got no targets and played only a handful of snaps. In game two, he did catch a pass early in the contest but he wasn't targeted again.

Now, McGuire and his offensive coordinator, Zach Kittley, are having to field questions about Hudson's usage at almost every press conference. And it seems like McGuire is trying to pull the breaks on the hype train that he helped send down the tracks.

"I know given his reputation people are clamoring to see him on the field," McGuire said on Monday. People are clamoring for me not to go for it on 4th down so much right now, you know people are clamoring for me to do a better job and I'm clamoring for myself to a better job. We have to do a good job of getting it going.

"It's just always one of those deals of like he's got to play more. Jordan Brown...he made some big catches in the game you know. We got to get him more on the field but it's also like who you take off? You know, [we] got a guy that has 9 catches for 95 yards and other guys got 5 for 54, 4 for 71, and then we played with a couple of young backs tonight that you know I had to step up and I thought they did a good job."

McGuire indicates that he doesn't trust the young freshman as much as he trusts his veteran receivers Josh Kelly, Caleb Douglas, Coy Eakin, and Jordan Brown, all of whom are upperclassmen. Remember, coaches want as much certainty on the field as they can get and this coaching staff apparently feels more comfortable with their older receivers than they do with Hudson, who is being hindered by the fact that he missed all of spring football while rehabbing from minor offseason knee surgery.

Thus, logical fans (which is a bit of an oxymoron) have to see where McGuire is coming from. Across the country, coaches at programs of all calibers are trying to field experienced and older teams because they know that upperclassmen tend to make fewer mistakes and are more physically ready to contribute. McGuire is no different and he doesn't want to take a veteran player out of the receiver rotation just to get a true freshman some snaps to appease the fans.

Similarly, Kittley seems content with the plan for Hudson right now. He said on Monday that there is a certain formation in which we will see the freshman and that's about it.

"Like I said last week," he said, "you know he's utilized for us in our empty package and again it just kind of depends on how we're feeling with that going in. You know we had a little bit more empty going into the game and we ended up not feeling like it was going to be a great formation for us after we got in a little bit and they're doing little things differently on defense.

"And you know and he got his first touch in the game and again man he's a good football player but we got other guys right now they're playing really well at wideout and so you know we're going to keep kind of going with what we're going with. He's got his package that he'll get in the game and again you know I can't tell you how many touches he's going to have on a weekly basis but that's kind of the plan moving forward."

Kittley's remarks indicate that Hudson is likely to only see the field when the offense goes to a five-wide formation with no running backs in the backfield. That's not good news for people who want to see more of the 5-star signee.

The rub is that when Tech goes to a five-wide formation, it does two negative things to the offense. First, it takes star running back Tahj Brooks either off of the field or at least out of the backfield. Second, it makes a struggling offensive line more vulnerable to blitzes which then exposes QB Behren Morton to hits because there is no running back next to him to pass protect.

Therefore, going five-wide is not what the Red Raider offense is going to major in moving forward. In fact, no offense in the game of football is going to run a five-wide system more than a few times per game. There are just too many weaknesses in that formation for it to be the foundation of an offense.

What that means is that Tech fans likely won't see too much of Micah Hudson moving forward unless he supplants an older player on the depth chart. His talent and natural abilities might be enough for him to challenge a player like Brown but right now, it is clear that the coaches trust Brown, and the rest of the upperclass receivers, more than they do Hudson. So though Texas Tech football fans will continue to lament his lack of playing time, his role doesn't appear ready to evolve just yet.