Big 12 Football Preseason Power Rankings: Boomer Sooner
By VF Castro
No. 4: Texas Tech Red Raiders
Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury adopted the old military adage, “Fortune favors the bold” last season. And while a No. 4 spot might have some of you scratching your heads or rolling your eyes, the idea is valid.
Oklahoma Sooners’ quarterback Baker Mayfield is being lauded as the Big 12’s most serious Heisman hopeful, and with good reason: his stats and a playoff appearance certainly look appetizing. However, Texas Tech rainmaker Patrick Mahomes lead Mayfield statistically in both rushing and passing categories in 2015:
- Mahomes: No. 4 in passing: 364/573 for 4.653-yards, 36 passing TD, 15 INT, 10 rushing TD
- Mayfield: No. 18 in passing: 269/395 for 3,700-yards, 36 passing TD, 7 INT, 7 rushing TD
Throughout the spring and summer players have given Texas Tech’s new strength and conditioning coach Rusty Whitt a lot of credit for pushing them to realize their potential, both athletically and mentally. Those toughness exercises will likely be the difference-makers in Texas Tech’s overall conditioning in the back-loaded part of their schedule.
Tech lost some key veteran leadership in DeAndre Washington, Jakeem Grant, Le’Raven Clark, Jared Kaster and Pete Robertson, but with a renewed intensity, there won’t be room for excuses this season.
There were whispers throughout fall camp that Tech’s defense was creating a bit of frustration for the offense, so hopefully under David Gibbs’ second-year as defensive coordinator, Tech starts to play some disciplined smash mouth defense, and is able finally lock in some marquee wins.
Silver Lining: Texas Tech’s defense can only improve, but with accountability stressed intensely all offseason, I think punishment in the weight room for not doing your job is reason enough to be optimistic.