Even when they’re not the best team in the Big 12 South division, Texas Tech is a fantasy owner’s dream. The Red Raiders put up ridiculous stats, generally leading the nation in passing and being right up there in total offense.

2007 was no exception. TTU finished 7^th in scoring offense, 1^st in passing offense, and 2^nd in total offense. QB Graham Harrell and WR Michael Crabtree contended for the Heisman. Ironically, their only loss in the first seven games came when Crabtree dropped a sure TD pass with seconds remaining to lose to Oklahoma State, 49-45. Not that you can really blame the offense for such a loss.

However, their final five games featured Missouri, Texas, and Oklahoma in and the Red Raiders finished the regular season 8-4. In their second consecutive bowl comeback, TTU scored 17 points in the final four minutes to beat Virginia 31-28 and finish 9-4.

Mike Leach has transformed Texas Tech from a middle-to-bottom Big 12 team into a conference contender. His philosophy is basically throw the ball. They don’t run and don’t really play defense*, but it works well enough apparently.

* Red Raider fans are quick to point out that Baylor was held scoreless until the final minute of the game last season. Really? Baylor? That’s so amazing. Jamal Charles scored 59 points basically by himself, and Zac Robinson managed to win a shootout vs Graham Harrell basically because both offenses looked like they alone on the field and Harrell’s receivers dropped one pass, which was more than TTU’s defense was able to stop. Sorry, holding Northwestern State to 7 doesn’t count, either.

Graham Harrell will be one of the top two QBs on everybody’s draft board, and for good reason. He’s a system QB, but one who has the real talent to do well in a pro-style offense. Harrell is the reigning Sammy Baugh award winner, coming off a 5700 yard season with 72% completions (!) and a 48-14 ratio.

This is a really easy call. Draft and play Graham Harrell if you can. Personally I think he is a better pick than even Tim Tebow, considering the defenses Tebow will face in the SEC and the fact that Leach is going to try to completely center the offense around Harrell whereas Urban Meyer perhaps realizes that Florida needs to establish at least some sort of Robin to Tebow’s Batman in the ground game.

I’m pretty sure Texas Tech has running backs; they just don’t use them. To make matters worse, Leach had a loss of confidence in returning starter Shannon Woods, who was demoted to third string. This could mean Aaron Crawford, Kobey Lewis or Baron Batch being the main guy, or more likely some combination of the four – i.e., they’re splitting carries on a team who already throws the ball 75% of the time. Yep.

Michael Crabtree set a freshman TD receptions record last season – by October. By the time the season was over, he had completely shattered the freshman TD record, hauling in 22 scores to go with 1962 yards, easily winning the Biletnikoff Award. Eric Morris and Edward Britton were the #3 and #4 receivers on the team, respectively, and with Danny Amendola gone both are candidates to go for 1000 yards.

Texas Tech returns every starter on offense except for Amendola. What this means is that, in theory, everybody’s production should be going up. If a WR in on the field for significant playing time at Texas Tech, he’s going to put up big numbers, and really there’s no reason to believe Crabtree won’t lead the nation in both receiving yards and TDs once again.

Texas Tech’s defensive philosophy is “if we hold them under 50, the offense will win it for us.” Not surprisingly, TTU allowed 59, 49, and 41 points in three of their four losses. They actually scored over 40 points in two of those games! This is also a team that doesn’t force a lot of turnovers, so really there is no reason to draft this unit.

Of course we remember that former kicker Alex Trlica hit a career-long field goal in the 2006 Independence Bowl to send the game to overtime, allowing the largest bowl comeback in NCAA history to take place! Trileca had been a reliable clutch kicker (though not great overall) for TTU, but now he is gone. Of course, Trlica lead the NCAA in PATs (67 in 13 games), and there’s no reason to think the offense will slow down at all, so picking up freshman Donnie Carona could be worth it.

Summary

This could be the year Texas Tech finally wins the Big 12. My money’s on Oklahoma winning the South, and I think Missouri beats Tech in the title game if it comes to that, but by no means are the Red Raiders a longshot. Last I checked they were a 75-1 to win the national title.

Texas Tech possesses a sick, sick offense. They are going to put up tons of points and that is only going to be magnified by the fact that they managed to put Eastern Washington, SMU, and Massachussetts on the September schedule. Bill Snyder would be proud. Mike Leach does not call off the dogs in these games, as a big part of Tech’s recruiting is the ability to give their players mind-boggling numbers that put them in the national spotlight. As ridiculous as it sounds, Harrell and Crabtree could exceed a lot of decent players’ season totals before October 1.

Even when the conference schedule starts, Texas Tech faces Kansas State, Nebraska, and Kansas from the north – ie, they avoid Missouri. Kansas is a bit of a question mark after an amazing 2007 season, but make no mistake Nebraska’s defense is horrible. Oklahoma is really the only team on their schedule this offense is likely to struggle against, largely because of the heat the Sooner front four can put on. Even then, OU has a somewhat depleted secondary, so Harrell could just say screw this, I’m going deep to Crabtree, and you can’t stop it.

Few will.