Texas Tech, tied for power-five high 30 sacks allowed, rethinks O-line options

Texas Tech has allowed 30 sacks this season, tied for most among teams in power-five conference football. In search of better results, Tech coach Joey McGuire says he will at least look at an offensive line shakeup.

During his Monday press conference, McGuire pointed out that, on the depth chart listed for this week, there is an "or" shown at both offensive tackle positions: Caleb Rogers or Ethan Carde at left tackle, Matt Keeler or Monroe Mills or Ty Buchanan at right tackle.

McGuire said it will be "a true competition" at both positions.

The Red Raiders have allowed six sacks in three games this season and four sacks in two other games. Baylor racked up six in a 45-17 Bears victory Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium. On Monday, Baylor defensive end Gabe Hall, the fourth opposing player to register at least three sacks against the Red Raiders this season, was named Big 12 defensive player of the week.

"We can't give up six sacks," McGuire said. "That has to do with me. It has to do with coach (Zach) Kittley. It has to do with (line) coach (Stephen) Hamby. It has to do with the offensive line and the QB. We all have to look at ourselves."

There's a possibility the Red Raiders might switch Rogers and Mills when Mills is healthy. The transfer from Oklahoma State started the first six games at right tackle, but remains questionable this week with a knee strain that's sidelined him the past two games.

"Monroe right now is going to be taking snaps out of a right-handed stance and a left-handed stance," McGuire said. "If he's fully healthy, I can see him easily being over there (at left tackle). Caleb was a right tackle, and we moved him over to left tackle. We'll see, in a couple of weeks, when we're fully healthy, what that looks like."

Texas Tech, Georgia Tech, Kentucky and Washington State have each allowed 30 sacks this season, most in the power-five. Four teams from group-of-five conferences have allowed more than 30. It's a high number, even if, as offensive coordinator Zach Kittley has noted, some sacks have resulted from quarterbacks missing reads and not throwing on time and others from pass-protection breakdowns by a running back or tight end.

Rogers has made 24 consecutive starts. Carde started seven games as a newly arrived junior-college transfer in 2020 and two games last year, but hasn't been in the mix this season.

McGuire said the Red Raiders might work more first units against first units in practice to stress the line more.

"At left tackle, you've got Caleb Rogers and Ethan Carde," McGuire said. "(Carde) is an older guy. He's done everything we ask, so we're going to let those two guys battle it out.

Tech also looked at Buchanan at left tackle in recent weeks, and line coach Stephen Hamby has raved about Buchanan's athletic ability. But he's a redshirt freshman and throwing a redshirt freshman who's never played left tackle into the Big 12 fire at midseason is a tall order.

Keeler joined the starting lineup when Mills went down.

"Ethan's played guard and tackle, and played both in college football," McGuire said. "He got all the reps as Caleb's backup last week whenever Monroe went down. We moved Ty back over and moved Keeler over to right, just trying to get the best five out there."

Tech's passing game is one of extremes. In addition to being bottom five in sacks allowed, the Red Raiders are tied for fourth in the FBS in passing offense with an average of 338.0 yards per game and lead the FBS in interceptions thrown with 15. In the latter category, Donovan Smith has thrown eight in 220 attempts, Behren Morton six in 158 attempts and Tyler Shough one in 12 attempts.

McGuire indicated Monday that Morton will get his fourth consecutive start — he's at least beginning the week with the first team in preparation for Saturday's 11 a.m. game against No. 7 TCU in Fort Worth.

Kittley said he could have helped the offense against Baylor by calling more run plays. The Red Raiders finished with 200 yards in gross rushing, less the 51 yards in sacks that left them with a net 149 on the ground.

"I should have run the ball more and taken pressure off those guys," he said.

The Red Raiders also had some running-back screens in the game plan, Kittley said, but felt less confident about using them after right guard Landon Peterson went down with a shoulder injury early in the game. The junior from Odessa Permian, a starter for all eight games, is somewhere between doubtful to questionable for this week. Redshirt freshman Jacoby Jackson came in for him.

"If you're going to run screens, you've got to get a lot of repetition at those throughout the week," Kittley said. "A lot of your screen game has your guards and center getting out on those screens, especially when it comes to the right side side of the offensive line.

"When Landon went down, Jacoby hadn't had as many reps at getting those screens. The biggest part of the screens is hitting your (blocking) targets when you get out there in space. That's something that we didn't get to as much. Again, probably should have done it, but we didn't feel as comfortable with it when that happened, at that point in the game."

Tech-KU kickoff set

Texas Tech's Nov. 12 home game against Kansas will be a 6 p.m. kickoff. The game will be streamed online by Big 12 Now on ESPN+.

The Big 12 television partners made their selections and assigned times Monday for all the Nov. 12 games. The others are Oklahoma at West Virginia, 11 a.m. on Fox Sports 1; Iowa State at Oklahoma State, 2:30 p.m. on ESPN2 or ESPNU; Kansas State at Baylor, 6 p.m. on Fox or FS1; and TCU at Texas, 6:30 p.m. on ABC.

College football

Who: Texas Tech at TCU

When: 11 a.m. Saturday

Where: Amon Carter Stadium, Fort Worth

Records: Texas Tech 4-4, 2-3 in the Big 12; TCU 8-0, 5-0

Rankings (AP/coaches poll): Texas Tech unranked/unranked; TCU 7/7

TV: Fox

Last game: Baylor 45, Texas Tech 17; TCU 41, West Virginia 31

Last meeting: TCU 52, Texas Tech 31 last year in Lubbock.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech, tied for power-five high 30 sacks allowed, rethinks O-line options