Texas Tech Offensive Success: Quarterback or System?

By Big12-Fans Writer Josh Cline

The weekend of football in the Big 12 wasn’t quite as good as it was on the national level, but it did answer a few questions around the league. First of all, Texas is for real after their 42-17 victory over Colorado in Austin. Second of all, Baylor isn’t for real, losing at home to Nebraska 23-14. Thirdly, Missouri has proven that they will be on-and-off all season in their 27-24 OT win against Iowa State Also, we found out that we were absolutely correct in stating that Oklahoma State is awful, as they went down to College Station and got blown out 62-23 at the hands of Texas A&M.

Oklahoma decided to wait until the fourth quarter of the Kansas game to show a spark in the passing game this season. After what might be one of the most boring halves this century, OU turned up the heat on offense and defense for the second half. Rhett Bomar finished a less-than-stellar 16/31 for 206 with one touchdown to go with his two interceptions. Despite the poor numbers, he seemed to make crisper throws, going deep a couple of times to freshman WR Malcom Kelly on a 92-yard TD drive in the fourth quarter. The Sooners might not be so bad after all.

Texas Tech toyed with Kansas State in the first half in the plains of South Texas. The Red Raiders only had a 17-13 halftime advantage before exploding to a 59-20 lead at the final gun. Overall, it was a weird game as Tech QB Cody Hodges had nearly 300 yards passing by halftime and the Kansas State radio crew was still upbeat saying the defense was “playing really good.” Hodges finished the game with 643 yards and 5 TDs. The Red Raiders also finished with 15 yards rushing on 25 carries.

Enough with last week, let’s focus on the most important Big 12 game so far this year. Usually that comment is reserved for the Red River Shootout, but this year the game is Texas Tech @ Texas (2:30, ABC). Texas comes into the game favored by more than two touchdowns, but people are still giving Tech’s offense a chance. This year’s Tech team seems to have Leach’s aerial circus down as the Hodges-led offense has scored over 50 points on four occasions and has yet to throw for fewer than 300 yards.

The success of the Tech offense has led people to wonder, is it the system or the quarterback. I’m going to have to say it’s a little of both, but overall the system is what makes the whole thing work. The four quarterbacks of the Leach era have been Kliff Kingsbury, B.J. Symons, Sonnie Cumbie, and now Hodges. None of the three players who are out of the system have ever taken an NFL snap, so it is fairly obvious that their big-number talents in Lubbock have failed to translate to NFL success.

The system involves quick reads to a bunch of potential receivers on any given play. Leach has said his playbook is not that big, but just about 20 plays that are run over and over again. The system is practiced to perfection by the QB’s and has translated into gaudy numbers by all four in the Leach era. The reason that I think the player has something to do with the success of the system is that, other than Kingsbury, they have all been seniors. They have been able to put the time into the system and not let the speed of the game get to them in their first action. A guy like Rhett Bomar of OU would have a rough go of it because the speed of the reads might be too tough for such a young player. In the end, it’s probably mostly the system along with the experience of the QB’s involved that have been able to make the Leach offense such a success.

Other games this weekend include Nebraska @ Missouri (11:30 CT, FSN) and Baylor @ Oklahoma (6:00 CT, FSN) on television. Games on the radio include Oklahoma State @ Iowa State (1:00 CT) Texas A&M @ Kansas State (1:10 CT) and Kansas @ Colorado (6:00 CT).

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