There weren’t many teams that proved capable of slowing down Kliff Kingsbury once he got a feel for the Air Raid offense. Kingsbury managed to perform at a really high level for just about everything that Mike Leach wanted to do on offense, especially in 2002. During that 2002 season, Kingsbury became the first Red Raider to throw for 3000 or more yards in back-to-back-to-back seasons.
And yet, he wasn’t quite as productive in one single season as his successor proved to be. That’s because B.J. Symons was just about unstoppable for Leach’s Air Raid. Time and time again, Symons managed to throw for an absurd number of yards and torched just about every defense he faced.
And to be completely honest, it’s remarkable how close Symons got to throwing for 6000 yards in a single season. He didn’t break that threshold, but he threw a good bit more than 5000 yards in a single season. And it’s really impressive! I don’t think I can say that enough.
Texas Tech football history: B.J. Symons got so close to throwing for 6000 yards in a single season back in 2003
As we go through Texas Tech history and the Red Raiders’ record book, we need to examine how Symons threw for 5833 yards (which is a lot of yards) in just one season of work under Mike Leach’s guidance. Throughout the entirety of the 2003 season as TTU’s starter, Symons had just two games in which he didn’t throw for more than 300 yards.
There were eight different games in which Symons managed to throw for at least 400 or more yards. Against the likes of NC State, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma State, Symons threw for over 500 yards. He also managed to put up over 600 yards of passing offense against the Ole Miss Rebels in the 2003 season.
In total, Symons completed 470 of his 719 pass attempts (good for 65.4 percent of his passes) for 52 touchdowns (remarkable stuff) and 22 interceptions. And again, 5833 passing yards, folks.