Want some encouraging news about Texas Tech football? The latest odds to win the College Football Playoff have the Red Raiders at 25-1, tied with Alabama and Ole Miss for the ninth-shortest odds on the board, according to the BetOnline sportsbook. Yes, that's as of Sunday, Sept. 13, a day after Tech's 35-24 victory at Oregon State in a game much closer than the score indicated.
So a lot of people still believe in the Red Raiders' chance to have another memorable season.
Not many of them wrote in for our Q&A with readers this week. A lot of doom and gloom on the old X feed and in my email. Tech's 2-0, but there's a foreboding sense that what the Red Raiders have shown early in the season won't pass muster long. That probably starts this week with the Big
12 opener Friday against Houston.
On to the questions. (I received more than two dozen, too many to do justice to each one individually — but keep sending them. I tried to address the most asked-about topics.)
Q: This is not last year’s team. Line on both sides is not impressive. QB is now officially an issue. Will we see more of the Florida State transfer at QB?
Q: Ask about benching Hammond for #4 next week.
DW: I generally agree that this year's team isn't as talented as the 2025 Big 12 champions. The lines have to assert themselves, especially the offensive line, because so much of this team's ceiling depends on the running game. It's unrealistic to think the defensive front seven is going to be as good as last year, though it's still solid.
I expect to see more Thomas Castellanos, but I don't know how much more. He's a less-than-59% career passer with 28 interceptions to 50 touchdown passes, including a season with 15 TDs to 14 picks. Making him a bigger option means reconfiguring the offense on the fly to zone-read heavy and dialing back the passing game.
Q: The saying “when you have two quarterbacks you have none”. Does Texas Tech currently have two quarterbacks? The offense seems to be hesitant to push the ball down the field. Is this a lack of confidence in Will or more of a play-calling issue?
DW: The Red Raiders have two very different quarterbacks. Both are talented guys with a track record. They can win with them. Trying to add a new player at the most important position with no fall camp and right as the season starts ... That's breaking new ground. It's not as easy as EA Sports College Football 26 would have you believe. (I assume. The last video game I played was Galaga.)
Joey McGuire suggested after the game that Hammond probably should have trusted himself to throw deep a couple more times. Quarterbacks can hear a mixed message: When your receiver's even, he's leavin'. Get him the ball! Also, don't force it and turn the ball over!
Q: What are the odds Texas Tech replaces its offensive coordinator at the end of the year?
DW: Any given weekend, more than half the fan bases in college football — including those of undefeated teams! — want one or both coordinators fired. In Tech's case, it seems unlikely that they'd part ways with Mack Leftwich so soon after giving him a raise and an extension. And a year after, the Red Raiders finished top 10 in the FBS in scoring offense and total offense, and third in explosive plays of 20 yards or more.
Q: Are we struggling this year early because teams are now preparing more for us than we have in the past?
DW: I don't think opponents' time devoted to Texas Tech is more than it was in the past. However, I do think the Oregon State Beavers, having recently had the Power Four rug pulled from under them, were gunning for the Red Raiders. The Red Raiders might be the last ranked team the Beavers play this season, so it's human nature for them to be more fired up.
Q: How concerned are you about the lack of pressure on the QB? Do you see your offensive struggles related more towards your QB or Leftwich?
DW: Tech pressured Oregon State quarterback Braden Atkinson pretty consistently. They sacked him only once, but they pressured him and knocked him down a lot. (Example: Atkinson didn't see his 75-yard touchdown pass to Jesse Legree, because Jamond Mathis had him wrapped up, on the turf.) That's what made Atkinson's performance (413 yards, 2 touchdowns) so impressive. He's a sophomore who showed he can stand in, feel the heat, and/or take a hit and deliver accurately.
As for the offensive struggles, it's a combination of the line not being dominant and Will Hammond not having spring practice and summer workouts. All those missed reps matter, especially with so many new receivers.
Q: When you rewatch the Oregon St. film which position group are you thinking you will spend the most time examining? What are you thinking you’ll see?
DW: Offensive line. It looked like the Red Raiders wanted to get an extra hat into the run game more, especially motioning a tight end into the A and B gaps as a lead blocker. I would have expected them to spring a few more big gains.
Q: Can they run more stutter step handoffs up the middle with this [below average] offensive line… and whatever they do, don’t abandon it. Just keep trying?
Q: Why do we continue to utilize slow-developing run plays up the middle? They seem to result in 0-2 yards gained. J’Koby [Williams] scored on an outside zone that wasn’t slow-played.
Q: Why continue trying to run the ball between the tackles over and over with little to no success?
DW: It's a foundational part of the offense, designed to take advantage of J'Koby Williams and Cameron Dickey's strengths: Patience, vision, and options to bounce it outside or use their burst when a seam opens. When the seam opens, well, Dickey and Williams combined for 1,992 yards rushing, 5.5 yards per carry, and 20 touchdowns last year. When it doesn't, you get stuffed. You take some bad for a lot of good.
Q: Why can we get no push from the offensive line, and why can we get no penetration from the defensive line? Also, what is causing the struggles in the secondary?
Q: OL not making holes and the deep coverage lapses — is it fixable?
DW: The offensive line cohesion's a work in progress, but with the experience up front, it should be better. As mentioned above, I disagree that the defensive line had a bad game on Saturday. The Red Raiders didn't sack Atkinson enough, but they got a lot of hits on the quarterback.
Getting Brenden Jordan presumably back this week from a two-game suspension should help. That's a 21-game starter at safety, the position where Tech's played two first-time starters to begin the season. It'll be interesting to see if Jesse Legree, the OSU freshman, is the real deal after the numbers he ran up on Houston and Tech: 13 catches, 376 yards, and 3 touchdowns. That kid's clinched a spot on the Big 12 all-opponents team.
Q: So, how far overrated are we?
DW: Haven't looked at other teams enough to know whether the Red Raiders are ranked about right or a little too high. Tech's No. 12 by the media and No. 13 by the coaches this week, getting the benefit of the doubt from voters, perhaps? And people are disgruntled with their top-15 Red Raiders. Strange new world.
Q: Why is Micah Hudson not being utilized in the offense?
DW: He's played in 25 games and has 19 catches for 279 yards and 2 touchdowns, both TDs in the late stages of a blowout game. At this point, there's no reason to believe there's a whole lot more coming, and I don't see that as an indictment of the offense.
Coy Eakin, J'Koby Williams, and Cameron Dickey came up in the system and were early and ongoing producers. Kenny Johnson and Terrance Carter Jr. (and Caleb Douglas and Reggie Virgil) came in from the outside and had no trouble figuring it out.
The Tech staff let Hudson come back after he bolted to Texas A&M. Now they've force-fed him a starting job after an underwhelming first two years. It's up to him to do something with the opportunity.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football Q&A: Red Raiders undefeated, far from perfect
