Texas Tech is kicking off its third week of Spring football. Head coach Joey McGuire and his staff are getting their first true evaluations on the roster top-to-bottom. And while having a talented quarterback room is a good problem to have, landing a starting quarterback for the 2022 season is a major hurdle he has to clear. But there is a unit that McGuire hopes comes together even quicker. If the Texas Tech offensive line rebuild does not come together quickly, it likely won’t matter who the quarterback is.
Loss Of Major Production
The Texas Tech offensive line lost three starters (center Dawson Deaton, left tackle T.J. Storment, and guard Josh “50” Burger) from a fairly senior-laden group. But even with an experienced group last year, the offensive line unit was not a dominant force in the Big 12. They struggled by giving up 22 sacks, seventh-most in the Big 12. And for as deep as the running back corp was (and still is) for Texas Tech, the offensive line’s lack of consistency resulted in not getting one of its running backs to surpass 600 yards.
Tapping Into The Transfer Portal
In the new world of college football free agency, McGuire went searching for quick answers in the transfer portal. In total, McGuire has brought in four new offensive linemen. The first big name he grabbed was Cole Spencer. Spencer was an All-conference lineman out of C-USA. Spencer followed his offensive coordinator Zach Kittley from Bowling Green, Kentucky to Lubbock, Texas.
Another player added to the roster is Monroe Mills. Mills comes from Oklahoma State. He did not see any playing time last year with the Cowboys. Mills was a three-star recruit from the 2019 class out of Columbia, Missouri. Michael Shanahan has transferred in from UT-Martin. Shanahan was an all-conference left tackle for the Skyhawks last season.
Most recently, Texas Tech added a transfer from Southern California. Ty Buchanan redshirted in his one year at USC. But the former three-star recruit from Corpus Christi is coming back to the Lone Star state looking for an opportunity to get on the field. The last transfer has the most collegiate experience. Cade Briggs transfers in from New Mexico. Most likely he will get a shot to take over at center. Briggs played in 28 games in the last three seasons, 24 of which were starts. In 2021, he started every game at left tackle.
Will The Texas Tech Offensive Line Be Set When Spring Ends?
The brand new coaching staff is going to ask all of the position groups to come together quickly. Even if all of the players were on the team last year, this coaching staff is trying to gain trust and continuity quickly from players that they had not even met six months ago. The fans are going to be itching to get an answer at the quarterback position. But a Texas Tech offensive line with five starters announced before fall camp starts should be the thing Red Raider fans need to be concerned with. Realistically, even if Kittley has a good idea of who he wants the five to be, it’s going to take time for those five to operate as a collective unit. But an “open competition” for multiple starting positions along the offensive line going into the Fall would put this team behind the eight ball for the 2022 season.
