Texas Tech's emerging pass rush will be vital against Colorado

For most of the 2024 season, the Texas Tech football team has had one of the most anemic pass rushes in college football. In fact, in the first seven games of the year, Tech recorded only six total sacks as a team. However, over the past two games, that aspect of the defense has improved greatly and that could be a huge boost today against a stout Colorado passing attack.

Two games ago, the Red Raiders got to TCU quarterback Josh Hoover three times. That included a strip sack and fumble recovery by edge rusher Harvey Dyson III.

That was Dyson's first sack of the season after he missed several games to start the year. Monday, head coach Joey McGuire said that the sophomore is starting to turn a corner and he gave the credit to outside linebackers coach C.J. Ah You.

"Harvey Dyson, you know, he's played his best football the last two games," he said, "and so y'all have heard me say it before, I think C.J. Ah You is one of the best coaches I've ever been around in my life, you know, and his guys continually get better throughout the season."

Meanwhile, against Iowa State a week ago, Tech came up with two more sacks. Those didn't come from an edge rusher, though. Instead, they came from inside linebacker Jacob Rodriguez. According to McGuire, a philosophy change has led to getting Rodriguez more involved in the pass rush.

"So I think the movement up front and then really identifying who can get after the quarterback," he said, "and making it some of those instead of, you know, at times a call could say, 'Hey, we're going to bring a corner', but being able to tag that and letting Jacob Rodriguez come from that spot versus bringing a corner. You've seen some of that and just, again, the movement, we've had a lot more movement the last couple weeks."

Today, getting pressure on Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders will be critical. The Buffaloes have three wide receivers with at least 430 yards receiving on the year and all are explosive when they have the ball in their hands. Thus, if Sanders is allowed to simply sit in the pocket and survey the field, he will pick apart the suspect Red Raider secondary.

The Colorado passing game does have a kryptonite, though. While the Buffs are better along the offensive line this year, they still aren't great at protecting the quarterback.

In fact, they rank 123rd nationally and last in the Big 12 in sacks allowed. On average, they are giving up 3.25 sacks per game. What's more, that number would likely be even higher if Sanders wasn't so elusive in the pocket allowing him to avoid a number of sacks that most quarterbacks would take.

This game today could very well come down to which team can best exploit the weakness of the other. If Colorado is able to protect Sanders, then he will likely have a field day against the team that ranks second-to-last in the nation in passing yards allowed. However, if the Texas Tech pass rush can continue its improvement and put constant pressure on Sanders, then, Tech could have a great chance at slowing the dangerous Colorado offense just enough to pull out a win.