Texas Tech football 2023 rewatch: A tale of two QBs leads to loss to K-State

Kansas State seems to have put a hex on the Texas Tech football program. No matter what the Red Raiders try to do, no matter who suits up in the scarlet and black, no matter which head coach is calling the shots, the Wildcats just have the secret formula for dominating that series.

Currently, the Red Raiders have lost eight games in a row to the Wildcats. That streak spans back to 2016 and has featured four double-digit wins.

However, there have been times when Tech has had chances to end this losing skid only to see fate or folly be their undoing. For instance, in 2021, the Red Raiders held a 24-10 halftime lead over the Wildcats in Lubbock only to be shut out in the second half and lose 25-24 in what would be Matt Wells' last game as head coach (thank God).

Last season, the Red Raiders also had a shot to take down Kansas State in Lubbock. In fact, the Red Raiders held a 21-17 lead midway through the third quarter.

However, we would learn in this game that football is all about the quarterback position. That's where the Wildcats had a huge edge on a night when both teams would end the game with their backup running the show.

So let's go back inside this game and look at how the Red Raiders let a winnable game get away from them with some dreadful quarterback play and poor coaching decisions in the second half.

Morton hurt again, can't play in second half

What was interesting about this game was that the two starters, Tech's Behren Morton and Kansas State's Will Howard, were largely ineffective in the first half as KSU built a 17-14 edge at the intermission.

Howard was only 6-9 passing for the game for 86 yards and he would be pulled in the third quarter. Meanwhile, Morton was slightly better going 14-21 for 125 yards and no TDs or INTs.

The problem was that Morton also ran the ball six times for eight yards in the first half. Though he would score a rushing TD, he also took a couple of big hits, and as a result, he was unable to play in the second half as his sprained throwing shoulder took more damage. Just this past week, Joey McGuire referenced that game and said that the punishment Morton took was unnecessary and that his QB has to do a better job of avoiding contact.

"You know, he got hit twice against K-State that was on him," McGuire said. "There was no reason for him to take those hits."

And once Morton left the game, Tech was in a world of trouble.

The battle of the backups goes to K-State

On one hand, it was staggering to see the difference in the two true freshman backup quarterbacks that battled in the second half of this game. Kansas State's Avery Johnson went wild on the Tech defense running for 90 yards and five TDs on 13 carries for the game. He also completed eight of nine passes for 77 yards.

Meanwhile, Tech's Jake Strong went 16-28 for 173 yards and a TD through the air but he also tossed three crucial picks which came on three straight possessions in the second half. He did run for 54 yards, all of which came on one carry, a surprising burst on his second drive of the third quarter, a 99-yard TD drive that briefly gave Tech a 21-17 edge.

But on the other hand, we shouldn't have been surprised at this. After all, Johnson and Strong were in completely different situations heading into this game.

The plan for KSU all along was to get Johnson some snaps in this game. He had already appeared in two other games and he had a designed package of plays set to maximize his skillset, especially running the football.

Meanwhile, Jake Strong had been Tech's backup since Tyler Shough went down vs. West Virginia but he had not seen the field. The hope was that he wouldn't have to against the Wildcats, either.

We also have to remember that Johnson was a 4-star recruit and the No. 9 QB in the country in the class of 2023. Meanwhile, Strong was the No. 37 QB in the nation in the same class and just a three-star prospect when he signed with Tech.

Ultimately, Johnson had an easier time of things because his elite speed and rushing ability made the game simple. Tech couldn't ask Strong to play that way because, first of all, that isn't his game, and also because he was the only healthy scholarship QB the program had at its disposal. So in this game, Johnson was in a much better position to succeed and it showed in a huge way.

Tech goes away from Tahj Brooks

You would think that with Strong in the game, Tech would feature Tahj Brooks and the ground game in a huge way to try to keep things close. But as KSU got out to a double-digit lead, Tech went away from what had been working for the previous two weeks.

In the previous four games, Brooks had averaged 24 carries and 144.5 yards per game. So why offensive coordinator Zach Kittley gave him only 17 carries (on which he amassed 98 yards) against K-State is puzzling.

In the second half, Brooks carried the ball only eight times. Most puzzling was a 4th-and-two on the first drive where Tech didn't give him the ball and instead relied on Strong to make a play with his arm, which he didn't.

What's more, on the back-to-back-to-back possessions that ended with Strong interceptions, Brooks carried the ball a total of just three times. It was a puzzling decision by Kittley to put this entire game on his true freshman QB instead of on his running back who averaged 5.8 yards per carry on the night.

What we learned from this game

It isn't a stretch to say that this game was maddening. It went from a four-point Tech lead to a KSU blowout in the span of just minutes.

This loss proved that Strong wasn't ready for the big moment yet, and that's not his fault. Most true freshmen wouldn't be.

But what we learned most from this game was that Kittley hadn't completely learned his lesson about relying on Brooks and the ground game. In fact, he seemed to regress in that regard.

When your only QB is a 3-star true freshman who is making his college debut, you don't put the ball in the air 28 times in the second half. What you should do is turn to your ground game and your star running back.

After Brooks got only 18 total carries in the first two games of the season, he would have 17 or more in every other game of the season. This was the game when he had only 17 carries and it is hard to understand why given the QB situation.

It was a reminder that Kittley has some growing to do as an offensive coordinator and that he still had some bad habits to kick. Hopefully, he used this loss as a learning moment because he made some critical mistakes, just like his true freshman QB did that night.