LATEST: Texas Tech football players projected to rise significantly in 2024

A prominent narrative from the Texas Tech football season of 2023 was players being called upon to play sooner than planned. Any season is inevitably marred by injuries, and head coach Joey McGuire had to rely on his roster’s depth last fall.

That wasn’t exactly encouraging news for a squad that had such high hopes going into 2023. But all that additional experience can come in handy come playoff time. So let’s examine three Red Raiders who have a chance to advance significantly come fall.

QB Behren Morton is Texas Tech’s star right now.

Behren Morton is the new QB1 for the Red Raiders in 2024. Of course, Tyler Shough’s season-ending injury forced him to start eight games last year, but this is Morton’s program to lead for the first time in his career.

Morton will be participating in his first college offseason as the guy. In spring football and fall camp, he will receive all of the first-team reps. However, he will be expected to step up his leadership both on and off the field as he matures.

Naturally, a perfect health report for the entire season would be the biggest benefit to Morton. Recall that he has yet to participate in a whole collegiate game while he wasn’t sidelined by an annoying injury.

He struggled with a high ankle sprain in 2022, which restricted his range of motion. This past fall, he had to deal with a sprained shoulder that he sustained in the same game that Shough was injured in every start he made. As a result, he was unable to reach his full potential as a player, something that most Texas Tech football fans believe he is capable of.

The redshirt sophomore made 62.1% of his throws last season, however he only threw for 1,757 yards and 15 touchdowns with 8 interceptions in 9 starts. Naturally, we should anticipate much more in the upcoming year.

A redesigned and enhanced group of receivers, which includes 5-star rookie signee Micah Hudson, transfer TE Jalin Conyers, and transfer WR Josh Kelly, will also be helpful to him in 2024. Compared to what Morton faced this past fall, that is a far more deadly collection of pass catchers. It is therefore anticipated that Morton will make significant progress and ultimately fulfill the promise we have all seen in him.

DB Brenden Jordan will be a key defensive player

The secondary was one area in which Texas Tech lost a lot of ground. At that point, Tyler Owens and Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, two safeties, among the other four starters, ran out of eligibility.

In his second season as a Red Raider, sophomore Brenden Jordan will have space to assume a significant role. His performance in 2023 suggests that he is poised to emerge as the South Plains’ next great defensive back.

He was once regarded by 247Sports as a four-star prospect and was among the top 100 players in Texas for the class of 2023. Still, nobody anticipated him to play as much as he did in the previous campaign.

Last season, Taylor-Demerson and Owens’ nagging injuries frequently pushed Jordan to play early. He finished the season with 20 tackles, 16 of which were from solo attempts.

Furthermore, the Red Raiders typically had a strong secondary with Jordan as the final line of defense, with the freshman’s inaccuracies being the exception. Now, after spending the whole offseason working out in the program’s weight room and picking up positional specifics, Jordan has the potential to transform from a reliable backup into a game-changing player.

Tech has had excellent safety performance over the last 15 years from players like Cody Davis, Keenon Ward, Douglas Coleman, Vaughnte Dorsey, and Jah’Shawn Johnson. There is now speculation that Jordan may be the next great player to guard the Red Raider secondary’s back end, and as a full-time player in 2024, his output should soar.

Jacob Rodriguez has the potential to be Texas Tech’s next great linebacker.

So far, glimpses of Jacob Rodriguez’s potential as a linebacker have been presented. But in 2024, he might finally break through and emerge as an All-Big 12 player.

Rodriguez arrived at his current location by a quite unusual route. After graduating from Wichita Falls High School, he received a quarterback recruiting offer from Virginia. Once there, though, he was changed to a running back with some experience as a tight end.

After spending a year in the east, he went back to Texas and was converted to linebacker by the Red Raiders. But by 2022, Tech was as strong as it gets at that position, giving Rodriguez a year to adjust to his new position.

He was expected to be a full-time starter the previous season, but he missed seven games due to a lower leg injury sustained in the season opener. In order to maintain his eligibility to redshirt, he also skipped the last regular season game after making a late season comeback. Rodriguez is therefore still eligible for three more years.

Still, in five games last year, he made 32 tackles. This includes the season’s first game, in which he was hurt in the first quarter and only managed two tackles.

He made 30 stops during the course of the four games he participated. If you average that over a whole 12-game season, you’ll end up with 90 tackles, which is a great season.

Similar to Morton, Rodriguez is well-liked in the program, but his injuries have prevented him from contributing to the fullest. He will be among the conference’s finest linebackers if he can remain on the field, so perhaps that will improve next season.