Commentary: Tech: Your weekly 'get well' card

Good news for any of the future opponents on the Texas Tech football schedule who may be struggling or have self-doubt creeping in. The Red Raiders are the perfect tonic for what ails almost any team.

Wyoming, you a little concerned about all that offensive inexperience in the season opener against a trendy pick to win the Big 12?

Don’t worry. Texas Tech is here.

West Virginia, you a little nervous about being picked dead last in the Big 12 in this conference opener?

Don’t worry. Texas Tech is here.

Kansas State, you feeling antsy about three turnovers in a loss to Oklahoma State and now must go on the road again?

Don’t worry. Texas Tech is here.

BYU, you feeling exasperated after giving up 468 passing yards to a freshman quarterback in a 41-11 loss?

Don’t worry. Texas Tech is here.

And TCU, shaking your head after being humiliated 41-3 by Kansas State in a rematch of last year’s Big 12 championship game?

Don’t worry. Texas -- this game isn’t actually until Nov. 2 but you get the gist.

In this most disappointing of seasons, the Red Raiders are the “get well’ game for four teams after two-thirds of the year. They will become the highlight reel game of choice when school marketing departments start their season ticket sales push for 2024.

Tech’s dreadful 27-14 loss at BYU on Saturday dropped the Raiders to 3-5 overall and into the crevices of the Big 12 standings at a tie for 10th. Keep in mind this is the team that head coach Joey McGuire said back in August was going to put the country on notice. Presumably, he meant a new power was emerging, not last year’s 8-5 record was a fluke.

In a season full of ragged efforts, the most recent was the worst. Going to play BYU in Provo is not quite the same as playing Oklahoma in Norman. Charitably, the Cougars are an average team at best. Charitably.

BYU was coming off a 41-11 loss to TCU, which itself got routed 41-3 on Saturday. The Cougars are 5-2, but those wins include 14-0 over winless Sam Houston State, Southern Utah, a narrow win over 2-6 Arkansas, one over Cincinnati, the de facto worst team in the Big 12, and now Tech.

The Raiders were flat and out of focus from the outset. With one of the worst rushing attacks in the country, BYU’s L.J. Martin went 55 yards to the Tech 20 on the second play of the game, thanks in huge part to a whiff of a weak tackle attempt by safety Tyler Owens.

A couple of plays later, defensive tackle Tony Bradford, Jr. was sprinting off the field as the ball was being snapped. Why there was no flag is a good question. Then Bradford hustled his 300 pounds back on the field for the next play. He ran 80 yards sandwiched around one play. Not surprisingly, BYU scored just 3:26 into the game.

Tech had to call one timeout after a change of possession. The Raiders had five holding calls while another was declined. A player was ejected. Tech trailed 24-7 at halftime and the game was essentially over. Much of the second half showed BYU players smiling and rubbing heads on the sidelines in what could be their last win of the season.

Certainly, the large issue of a true freshman quarterback starting his first game on the road loomed large. Jake Strong is the latest in an endless parade of Tech quarterbacks over the last 10 years who have been forced prematurely into action because of one injury after another.

Since 2012, Tech has had 15 different quarterbacks. Only two – Seth Doege and Patrick Mahomes – made it completely through the season. Concussions, high ankle sprains, collapsed lung, broken ribs, broken collarbones, broken tibia, strained shoulder joints, concussions.

It’s a quarterback trauma unit unlike any in college football through four different coaches. From Vinny Testeverde, Jr. to Jackson Tyner, from McLane Carter to now Strong, some never should have played and some simply weren’t ready.

Strong is an emergency starter for the oft-injured Tyler Shough and Behren Morton. He’s played six quarters and thrown six interceptions. Strong is competing and doing the best he can, but obviously he’s just not ready for this stage.

Failure to connect on handoffs with Tahj Brooks was a 14-point difference against BYU. The first blew up a fourth-and-inches from the Cougar 4 in the first quarter. Later in the period, the two didn’t connect smoothly on a stretch handoff, and the ball squirted into the end zone where the Cougars recovered for a gift touchdown.

In all, the Raiders had five turnovers and five holding calls. That wasted a solid defensive effort that held BYU to 277 yards as Tech outgained its host by 112.

Strong never got much help. Other than Brooks, this team has shown little offensive talent, any kind of effective scheme, and players have just not developed in year two under McGuire and staff. There were glaring issues long before Strong was thrown in the fire.

I still believe in McGuire, but he’s going to have to show more than just raising Tech’s recruiting level. I can only go by right now, not 2024 or 2025. And right now shows a team with major offensive issues and a humbled second-year coach struggling not to be every team’s “get right” game.

Jon Mark Beilue writes about regional sports for The Eastern New Mexico News.