Texas Tech football defensive tackle Quincy Ledet Jr. has huge shoes to fill

One area where the Texas Tech football team is set to experience massive turnover in 2024 is along the defensive line. In fact, every spot in that position group will have a new starter this fall.

One of the biggest losses from a year ago is nose tackle Jaylon Hutchings who exhausted his eligibility last season. In his place, super-senior Quincy Ledet Jr. will get a shot to be a starter for the first time in his Red Raider career.

A 6-foot-2, 315-pound native of Orange, Texas, Ledet has the physical tools to hold down that spot. However, because Hutchings was so effective as the starter, Ledet's opportunities to shine have been limited.

Ledet arrived at Tech in 2023 after three seasons at Louisiana-Monroe. There he played in 31 games making 76 tackles and registering 4.0 sacks.

Last season, his first as a Red Raider, he played in all 13 games as the No. 2 nose tackle on the roster. Along the way, he made 20 stops as he had at least one tackle in 10 games.

Now, he is a huge component of a deep nose tackle rotation that will try to fill the void Hutchings leaves behind. This offseason, Joey McGuire and his coaching staff added another super-senior to the nose tackle rotation in James Hansen, a transfer from Nevada who had 18 tackles over the course of 12 starts in 2023.

Also set to see some snaps behind Ledet this year is an intriguing redshirt freshman, Jayden Cofield. Last year, he saw action in just three games making one tackle.

As you can see, none of these defensive tackle options are as accomplished as Hutchings was. During his Red Raider tenure, he made 193 tackles and 11.0 sacks. What's more, he had at least 44 tackles in each of his final three years in Lubbock.

This year, Tech expects to have one of the best linebacking duos in the Big 12 with Ben Roberts and Jacob Rodriguez manning the inside positions. However, their effectiveness will be determined in large part by the ability of the nose tackles to keep blockers from getting to the second level of the defense.

That's why Ledet and his fellow nose tackles can be judged only by their statistics. Rather, the more impactful the inside linebackers are this year, the more solid we can assume the defensive tackles will have been.

Of course, it will be tough to expect one player to provide the Red Raiders the productivity that Hutchings did. However, the hope is that Ledet, Cofield, and Hansen can form a more balanced trio and combine to offset Hutchings' absence.

Far too often during the past four seasons, Hutchings was forced to play too many snaps each Saturday. His talent, plus the lack of quality depth behind him, made it hard for defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter to take him off the field. As a result, Hutchings often wore down as games progressed and as the season reached November.

Now, Tech is going with a strength-in-numbers approach to the nose tackle position. Though Ledet will likely start, don't expect him to play 50-60 snaps per game like Hutchings so often did.

Instead, look for him to be the leader of a rotation that could see equal distribution of the workload this fall. Somehow, that trio is going to have to step up and give the Red Raiders the type of consistency that Hutchings did for the past five years.