Texas Tech Red Raiders
2010 Record: 8-5
2010 Bowl Result: beat Northwestern 45-38 in Ticket City Bowl
2010 Against The Spread: 5-7-1
2010 Over/under: 7-6
Returning Starters: 13 (7 offense, 6 defense)

Throughout August we are releasing pre-season previews for all the major college teams.  our College Football Handicappers are doing plenty of research to make sure we release  winners every week during the upcoming season.

Texas Tech finished 8-5 last season in the first season under coach Tommy Tuberville. Tuberville took over for long time coach Mike Leach who was fired for allegedly abusing his players. Tech must replace 5 starters on offense including quarterback Taylor Potts who graduated.

Here is a look at Texas tech’s offense, defense, special teams, and schedule.

Offense

Last season the offense continued to be one of the best in the country continuing the tradition started by Leach. The offense averaged 463.9 yards a game which was 15th in the nation, and passed for 318.9 yards a game which was 7th in the country. Under Tuberville, Tech even ran a balanced offense by their standards by running for 145 yards a game. The rushing game still only ranked 73rd in the country. The Red Raiders scored 33.1 points a game  a season ago.

Junior Seth Doege takes over at quarterback for Potts. Doege was highly recruited by many schools in 2008 despite being injured for his junior and senior years and now finally gets his chance to show how good he can be. He only threw 4 passes last year as the third string quarterback. Doege hasn’t seen much action in five seasons after redshirting his first year in Lubbock.  Doege has a strong arm and is accurate as well.Back-up Jacob Karam could see some action for a change of pace as Tuberville installs some elements of the pistol in his game plan.

Texas Tech will run the ball even more this season. Leading rusher Baron Batch graduated last year after  he had 177 carries for 816 yards, and 5 touchdowns. Junior Eric Stephens will be the primary ball carrier this year. Stephens had 127 carries for 668 yards and 6 touchdowns in 2010. Stephens also had 33 catches and 2 touchdowns last season. Senior Aaron Crawford only had 19 carries last season but will the second option at tailback and will get a lot of carries as well. Tech also recruited two blue-chip running backs in Kenny Williams and Bradley Marquez that will see significant action as well.

The Red Raiders will miss receivers Lyle Leong  and Detron Lewis. Leong had 74 catches, 926 yards and 19 touchdowns last year while Lewis had 87 catches, 852 yards, and six touchdowns. That kind of production will be difficult to replace completely but Tech has some talented receivers that are up to the challenge. Alex Torres is the top returning receiver, but he battled injury all season last year. He still had 39 catches for 481 yards and 3 touchdowns. Darrin Moore, Tramain Swindall, Austin Zouzalik, Cornelius Douglas all return as well as true Freshman Ronnie Daniels. All are talented and will be targets as the Raiders spread the ball around. Adam Jones and Tony Trahan will compete for the tight end job.

The offensive line will be one of the best at the school in years with all five starters back. The only weakness is at center where Justin Keown struggled at times last year in his blocking assignments.

Defense

As prolific as the offense was the defense was awful for Texas Tech last year. They ranked near the bottom in the country in all categories except rushing defense. Texas Tech gave up 461.2 yards a game including 293.8 passing yards. The Red Raiders  gave up 167.5 rushing yards a game which was ranked #74 in the country. However, this is mainly because teams really didn’t have to run as the pass defense was so atrocious. Tech gave up 30.9 points a game. With such an explosive offense and leaky defense Texas Tech played a lot of shootouts that lasted 4 hours or more with 1,000 yards of combined offense by both teams. They hope to improve the defense this year which will be easier said than done in the offensive-minded Big 12 conference.

Texas Tech will switch to a 4-2-5 defense under new coordinator Chad Glasgow in hopes of bring help to the beleaguered secondary. The defense returns 6 starters and the star will be junior safety Cody Davis. The defense will also break in some young but talented players in sophomores LB Cqulin Hubert and SS Terrance Bullitt.

Special Teams

Senior Donnie Carona becomes the full time kicker. He made only 1 of 4 kicks last year but he did make a 52 yarder against Weber St. Carona has a strong leg and could be a dependable kicker.

Ryan Erxleben takes over the punting duties as a sophomore for Jonathan Lacour. Carona will also use his strong leg on some punts, as he had a 47.5 average in ten punts last year with 3 inside the 20.

Austin Zouzalik will return punts but the unit only averaged 6.3 yards per return last year. Eric Stephens returns kicks and averaged 24.3 yards per return.

Schedule

Texas Tech dropped a scheduled game against TCU after the Big 12 added an extra conference game to have a true round robin schedule. For some reason, they chose to cancel that game rather than the home game against FCS school Texas St. Texas Tech also has non conference games at New Mexico and home against Nevada. In conference, Tech gets Texas A&M, Kansas St, Iowa St, and Oklahoma St at home. They close the season playing Baylor in Dallas in a neutral site game. The Red Raiders travel to Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Missouri.  With that schedule I don’t see more than 6 or 7 wins.

Betting trends

Texas Tech was 5-7-1 against the spread last season including 4-4 at home and 1-3-1 on the road. The over/under was 7-6 last season including 4-4 at home and 3-2 on the road.

Game to Play Texas Tech  

Last season Texas Tech was upset at Iowa St 52-38. This year, the Cyclones make the long trip to Lubbock October 29 and Texas Tech should have the upper hand.

Game to Bet against Texas Tech

Texas has beaten Texas Tech 45 of the 60 times they have played each other. Tech did win a memorable game in 2008 on a last second touchdown catch by Michael Crabtree but the Longhorns pretty much own the rivalry. I like Texas to continue that trend.

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