Texas Tech travels to Manhattan to battle with an inconsistent Wildcat offense

Sep 30, 2022 - 2:00 PM

Another week has come and gone and now after a huge win over the Texas Longhorns in OT, the Texas Tech defense is now preparing for another Big 12 offense, this time one who has had a pretty up and down season thus far.

My analysis may come off as a little harsh in my headline, but there isn’t really another way to describe this Kansas State offense so far this season. It’s been inconsistent at best. They struggled against Tulane at home, and the pass game was non-existent the first 3 weeks. The Wildcats seem to have found their groove against OU, but can they continue that success?

Lets start with the QB, shall we?

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Adrian Martinez was extremely impressive last week. It was probably his greatest performance of his 5 year college career. The question is, can he sustain that success? Last week, Martinez had an astounding stat line of 21 for 34 with 234 yards and 1 TD, while also running 21 times for 148 and 4(!) TDs. Those are absolutely incredible stats and it helped lead the Wildcats to a victory in Norman over the Sooners.

Here’s the thing with Martinez, the transfer from Nebraska has never been the king of consistency. He had these types of games for the Cornhuskers and it never lasted. Some of you may know, but residing in the state of Iowa, I am also an Iowa Hawkeye fan, so I watched a lot of Adrian Martinez football over the years. When he is good, he is great, but when he’s bad, he is atrocious and can lose his teams games.

Martinez is a great runner, it’s his biggest strength. Tech’s biggest key to winning this game will be making Martinez stay in the pocket and make him throw the ball. That’s when some of his biggest mistakes come. Make him put the ball in the air, don’t let him get outside the pocket and work his running magic, because I will repeat, he is a fantastic runner.

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Next up, we have one of the Big 12’s best talents in Deuce Vaughn. This guy is a star and more than likely will be a star at the next level, too. Last week, Tech went up against what is probably the nations best RB in Bijan Robinson and what’s their reward? Probably the nations 2nd best RB in Vaughn.

Last week in Norman, Vaughn was a fantastic partner for Martinez carrying the ball 25 times for 116 yards. This season, Vaughn already has 87 carries for 468 yards and 3 TDs. Over his career, Vaughn has racked up 445 carries for 2,514 yards and 28 TDS, which amounts to 5.6 yards per carry.

Deuce Vaughn can also hurt you in the pass game if you’re not careful. Both of his first 2 seasons he had over 400 yards receiving and multiple TDs. This guy is small and powerful and his ability to find holes and hit them hard is his best strength. He is shifty in the open field and extremely difficult to bring down, it’ll be another challenge for the Red Raider defense.

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This season, Kansas State doesn’t really have a traditional #1 WR. Their pass game has been extremely spread out and not necessarily one guy has been the main guy. Like I said, their pass game has been extremely inconsistent thus far and the receivers stats somewhat show that.

Their lead guy this season has been Malik Knowles. Knowles has racked up 14 catches for 144 yards and 1 TD. Not super crazy numbers, but like I said, the pass game is extremely spread out.

This game is gonna be a really good one. Kansas State has one of the best run games in the nation while Tech has had one of the best run defenses in the nation. It’s gonna be a hard hitting slugfest against 2 teams with strength going against strength, who will prevail?

If you haven’t already, go give Chris’s defensive preview for KSU a read to get you fully prepared for this weeks highly anticipated matchup!