Texas Tech football special teams breakdown: What’s known, what’s to be determined

Veteran assistant Kenny Perry is a man of many hats on the Texas Tech football staff.

As associate head coach, he’s a right-hand man of sorts to Joey McGuire, interesting considering they used to snipe at each other across the field as high-school coaches of rival programs. As Tech running backs coach, Perry led the position room that produced a Doak Walker Award semifinalist when Tahj Brooks rushed for 1,538 yards last season.

More for the resume: As special-teams coordinator, he’s had something to do with the successes the past two years of Ray Guy Award semifinalist Austin McNamara, Lou Groza Award semifinalist Trey Wolff, Gino Garcia and Drae McCray.

All of which led to Texas-El Paso interviewing Perry for its head-coaching job last offseason. The Miners went another direction, and Perry stayed at Tech, where he’s back alongside McGuire and can still tell the Red Raiders to hand the ball to Tahj.

He’s had a few more decisions to make this spring and summer about the special teams, where the punter and punt-return specialist are gone and there’s an unexpected kicker competition.

Here’s a closer examination.

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Texas Tech’s associate head coach Kenny Perry gives instructions during a spring football practice, Tuesday, March 19, 2024, at the Sports Performance Center.

Kicker

Projected starter: Gino Garcia, Sr.

Primary depth: Reese Burkhardt, Sr.

In a nutshell: Garcia’s a sixth-year senior who’s made 48 of 69 field goals in his career. He hit 16 of 22 last year, including a late game winner at Kansas. Burkhardt’s never attempted a field goal in a college game.

To be determined: Can Garcia hold off a challenge by Burkhardt to keep his job? That question would seem to…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/texas-tech-football-special-teams-090232571.html

Author : Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

Publish date : 2024-08-24 09:02:32

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