The 2016 season was a pretty big one for Jonathan Giles. In what was the most productive season in his career by far, Giles was a consistently reliable pass catcher for Patrick Mahomes and he routinely had some pretty big performances in Kliff Kingsbury’s offense.
Giles only spent a couple of seasons out in Lubbock before he transferred to play for the LSU Tigers and then ended up leaving Baton Rouge for Texas Southern University, and there’s a fair bit to unpack there with all of the transferring, but we’re going to focus exclusively on what Giles did for Texas Tech for now.
During that 2016 season, Giles’ sophomore year with the Red Raiders, he turned into the leading receiver for the Texas Tech football team in Mahomes’ last season in Lubbock. Giles hauled in over 20 percent of the passing yards that Mahomes produced that season, which feels significant.
Texas Tech football history: Jonathan Giles was Patrick Mahomes’ leading receiver during the 2016 season
Looking at his season stats, Giles caught 69 passes (which led Texas Tech that season) for 1158 yards (which also led Texas Tech that season) and 13 touchdown receptions (which also happened to lead Texas Tech that season).
Technically speaking, Giles’ didn’t lead the Red Raiders with his 16.8 yards per reception, but for players that had more than five catches, Giles found himself on top of this category for the 2016 Red Raiders as well.
Giles started the season off with a couple of solid performances against SFA and Arizona State, but he had a truly phenomenal game against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs as he caught just six passes and turned that into 186 yards and three touchdowns.
Then, just a dozen days later, Giles managed to catch 12 passes for 219 yards and a couple of scores against the Kansas Jayhawks. Giles also managed to post 136 yards and a couple of scores against West Virginia and then had 167 yards and two more touchdowns vs. Oklahoma.