The five biggest "What ifs" that Texas Tech football fans still ask themselves
What if Kliff Kingusbury would have tried to put a defense around Patrick Mahomes?
For decades, Texas Tech fans wondered what it would have been like to have a true Heisman Trophy-caliber player in Lubbock. Unfortunately, once one showed up out of the blue, the program, and specifically former head coach Kliff Kingsbury, wasn't ready to make the most of him.
Of course, that special player was Patrick Mahomes II, now the face of the NFL and the best football player in the world. Though Texas Tech fans love to see their native son rack up Super Bowl wins and accolades, we still have to ask "What if Kingsbury would have tried to put a decent defense around Mahomes in Lubbock?".
Mahomes was Texas Tech's starter in 2015 and 2016. In those two seasons, he lost five games in which he and the offense posted 40 or more points. What's more, three of those games saw Mahomes hang 50 or more points on the board.
The problem was that in 2015, Tech ranked 127th out of 128 teams in total defense giving up an absurd 547.7 yards per game. The next year, Tech ranked dead last in America by giving up 554.3 yards per game.
At the time that Mahomes was on campus, Kingsbury openly ignored the defensive side of the ball. In fact, it wasn't until 2017 that he decided to actually contribute his thoughts to that aspect of the program.
What's more, he largely ignored recruiting, especially the recruitment of defensive players. In fact, he still maintains that he despised the recruiting process, something that many thought would be a strength of his given his personality, swagger, and youthful style.
The problem is that Kingsbury's ignoring of the defensive side of the football resulted in the wasting of the best player the program has ever seen. Tech went just 12-13 overall in the two years that Mahomes was the team's starting QB.
What if Kingsbury would have been more dedicated to being a head coach and not just an offensive guru? Would Texas Tech have had its first Heisman Trophy winner? Would the program have competed in the Big 12 title game for the first time? Those are questions that will always haunt Red Raiders when we think about Mahomes and his time in Lubbock.