Texas Tech Red Raiders 2009 College Football Picks: After starting the season 9-0 and defeating No.1 Texas on November 1,Texas Tech seemed to be on its way to a potential National Championship. However, a 65-21 loss at Oklahoma in the next to last game of the season dashed the Red Raiders championship hopes – not only for 2008, but perhaps for the upcoming season. There is no doubt that ’08 was a magical season, but the team could not put the finishing touches on what might have been a historical season. The Red Raiders now move on with fresh faces that are going to execute the same old scheme. Michael Crabtree and Graham Harrell might be gone, but Texas Tech will still be airing it out in 2009. The college football picks experts at online sportsbook SBG Global has the Texas Tech Red Raiders listed at +6500 odds to win the 2010 BCS National Championship Title.
#12 TEXAS TECH
2008 Season Record: 11-2
2008 Final Rank: 12
Returning Starters on Offense: 4
Returning Starters on Defense: 7
Pros: Having waited in the wings for the past two seasons, highly anticipated quarterback Taylor Potts gets his opportunity to show Texas Tech that he can follow in the footsteps of Graham Harrell. Even with the losses of Harrell and star wide receiver Michael Crabtree, Potts looks to lead the Red Raiders to another prolific offensive season. While these numbers are accumulated from only a small amount of experience, they are still impressive. Potts, a former All-Big Country Class 4A-5A Offensive Player of the Year in high school, completed 55 of 85 pass attempts thus far in his collegiate career, and has established a 144.43 quarterback rating with Texas Tech since he started getting playing time in 2007. His targets in 2009 include Detron Lewis, Edward Britton and Tramain Swindall. Each of these three targets gathered over 500 receiving yards last season on a team in which Michael Crabtree collected 1,165 yards by himself. Lewis will be Potts number one wide out in 2009, having caught 76 passes, second on the team. Lewis also tied Crabtree with a 12.0 yard per catch rating, and proves to be a deep threat that Big 12 defenses will have to keep an eye on. Junior running back Baron Batch is back with the offense in 2009, having led Texas Tech with 758 yards on the ground and 6.7 ypc last season to go along with the team’s air attack. Batch looks to improve on those numbers with another year of experience on his resume.
Cons: With a dynamic offense, the weakness of the Red Raiders comes on the defensive side of the ball. The defense was a big factor in Texas Tech’s success last season, but the loss of defensive end Brandon Williams is going to hurt the pass rush. Without a pass rush, more pressure is going to be put on the rest of the Texas Tech defense to make plays, and give Big 12 offenses more time. Williams led the Red Raiders with 13 sacks last season, while only Mickinner Dixon tallied more than three all of last season for the rest of the D. With Williams gone, Dixon will receive much more attention, and the pass rushing is very suspect after him. The secondary took a hit with key losses as well. Corner’s Daniel Charbonnet and Darcel Mcbath combined for 12 interceptions last season, and neither will be returning in 2009. On top of the defense being questionable, the place kicking also creates a bit of an issue. While place kicking is not the most important unit on the field, it can lose games. Having won bowl games in 2006 and 2008 on clutch kicking performances, Texas Tech now places potential game winning kicks in the hands of inexperienced Matt Williams, who only joined the team after winning a field goal kicking contest while attending Texas Tech v. UMass game in 2008.
The college football picks odds makers at SBG Global have the Texas Tech Red Raiders +2000 odds favorites to win the Big 12 Conference Title.
Overall Outlook: both the offense and defense lost key players after the 2008 season, but the offense should be able to pick up where they left off. The defense, however, is going to have some issues. With the teams leading pass attacker no longer with the team, opposing offenses will have more time to get rid of the ball. Once that happens, Texas Tech’s best two pass defenders from last season will not be there to take over. The Red Raiders are going to score a lot of points, but the question will be if the Texas Tech defense is going to allow more points than the offense will score? Big 12 opponents such as Texas and Oklahoma will be looking to expose the Red Raiders defense, as the 2009 season looks like it may be one sides, high scoring on both ends. The one saving grace on the defensive side of the ball for Texas Tech looks like it could be junior line backer Brian Duncan. Duncan was the teams leading tackler last season with 89. If he can anchor the middle of the defense line and secondary a little bit easier, and they can use all the help they can get.
Keys to Success: If the defense can play decently and keep Texas Tech in games, it can allow Potts and the offense to tack on the points. This leads to another key to success, Potts himself. Potts is a question mark. If he does not live up to his hype or gets injured, the Red Raiders are in big trouble. There is no depth at the quarterback position, with former walk-on Steven Sheffield and redshirt freshman Seth Doege next in line. If Potts can stay healthy and work with the talent around him, Texas Tech will be good enough to be a top three team in the Big 12. The offense can be great with him at the top of his game. If things don’t turn out as well for Potts as Texas Tech hopes, and the defense plays to a not so high potential which it seems to be headed toward, it could be an ugly turn from great in ’08 to cellar time in ’09. Texas Tech has appeared in a Bowl Game from the past 8 seasons. Texas Tech has never won a Big 12 Championship (entered 1996). Texas Tech was 2-2 v. Top 25 opponents last season. Texas Tech undefeated against unranked opponents last season. Texas Tech had the No. 1 ranked passing offense in the Nation in 2008. Texas Tech had the No. 2 overall offense in the Nation in 2008.
Online Sportsbook SBG Global has posted the following odds to win the 2010 BCS National Championship:Alabama +2200
Arizona St +7000
Arkansas +7000
Auburn +9000
Boston College +7500
California +2200
Cincinnati +8500
Clemson +7500
Colorado +8500
Florida +150
Florida St +4000
Georgia +7500
Georgia Tech +1200
Illinois +4500
Iowa +8500
Kansas +4500
Kansas St +8500
Kentucky +8500
Louisville +8500
LSU +3200
Miami FL +3200
Michigan +8500
Michigan St +1700
Missouri +8500
Nebraska +4500
Notre Dame +1200
Ohio St +800
Oklahoma +650
Oklahoma St +2700
Oregon +4500
Penn St +1500
Rutgers +4500
South Carolina +8500
South Florida+5000
Southern Cal +600
Tennessee +8500
Texas +650
Texas A&M +8500
Texas Tech +6500
UCLA +8500
Virginia Tech +1700
Wake Forest +8500
North Carolina +4500
West Virginia +6000
Wisconsin +6500
Field (All Others) +1200
