Saturday night against Kansas State, the Red Raiders went into the locker room down 17-14. When they emerged from the tunnel to begin the second half, starting quarterback Behren Morton wasn’t the one leading the team back onto the field. Texas Tech turned to true freshman Jake Strong.
Morton had suffered a sprained AC joint injury against West Virginia. That same game saw Tyler Shough fracture his fibula. Morton has been treating the injury during the week to save his arm for gamedays. Head coach Joey McGuire discussed the injury and mental state of the young gunslinger on Saturday.
“He was pretty emotional when he came in at halftime,” Joey McGuire said, “because he didn’t want to let anybody down. But in a situation like that, you want to protect your guy and make sure he can protect himself. We just didn’t feel like he could.”
The Red Raiders program has had a bad run of luck at the quarterback position in recent history. The team has been forced to use three or more quarterbacks in each of the last three seasons. In 2020 they used just two in the shortened season.
As Tech faced just a three-point deficit at the half and using a true freshman quarterback, you would think the team would lean on the run game. That wasn’t the case at all as Strong threw the ball 28 times resulting in one touchdown to three interceptions. The game quickly unraveled and the Wildcats were able to bury the Red Raiders.
Given that Tech has one of the better running backs in the conference, it was disheartening to see offensive coordinator Zach Kittley dial up the passing game. Tahj Brooks would carry the ball only 17 times in this game, which went for 5.8 yards per carry.
There is still a chance that Morton could return as the starter for the matchup against BYU in Provo. Still, the team should lean on Brooks whenever they can. This year the Cougars are a bottom five rushing defense in the Big 12. It should be Tahj time on Saturday.