MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Texas Tech football team won eight games this season, but the Red Raiders weren’t perfect. Far from it.
They were especially lacking on defense, and it cost defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter and defensive passing game coordinator Marcel Yates their jobs. The vulnerability showed up again Friday night in the Liberty Bowl as Arkansas big-played Tech to pieces and walked away with a 39-26 victory.
“Some of our things that showed up all year long showed up again,” said Tech coach Joey McGuire, whose team finished 8-5. “We gave up too many big plays, and the times we haven’t played well, that’s what we’ve done.”
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Arkansas (7-6), playing without its leading rusher, three starting interior linemen and its top three pass catchers this season, nevertheless rolled up 559 yards and nearly every Razorbacks touchdown stemmed from a big play. Quarterback Taylen Green was named the game’s most valuable player after passing for 341 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 81 yards and a TD.
“I thought he had a great game,” said linebacker Jacob Rodriguez, who was named Tech’s outstanding defensive player. “The kind of stuff that we knew they liked to do, he did, but he just did it at a really high level. That dimension, to be able to run the ball, was obviously working, but it was something that put a lot of tax on us.”
Green paid more than casual attention early in the week when he spotted the individual Liberty Bowl trophies at a function for the teams.
“When we walked into Dave & Buster’s, I saw all the trophies shining,” he said. “I was like, ‘Is that the MVP trophy? All right, I need that.'”
Arkansas built a 21-3 lead in the first 13 minutes. Rodney Hill’s 70-yard run set up a 12-yard touchdown by Green on an option keeper around the end. Green hit Isaac TeSlaa on a deep over route for 56 yards to the 1-yard line and Braylen Russell scored on the next play. On the Razorbacks’ third series, Green hit Dazmin James with a slant, and the former North Carolina high school sprints star broke it for a 94-yard touchdown.
“The first one was a misfit, which that’s going to give you big plays in the run game,” McGuire said. “The second one was miscommunication, and then the third one was just we got beat. He outplayed us. The quarterback threw a really good ball.”
Green also flipped a 47-yard touchdown pass to running back Tyrell Reed in the third quarter.
James’s 94-yarder was a school and Liberty Bowl record, not to mention his first career catch.
“It’s crazy,” Green said. “We were talking about that slant in the hotel the whole week, and it came to fruition.”
James caught the ball at the 15-yard line, stepped out of cornerback Macho Stevenson’s tackle attempt and beat the pursuit the rest of the way down the sideline.
“He went 10.3 or something in high school, looking left and right, in the 100 meters and won the state championship,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said. “He’s a wonderful kid, too, but he’s really fast.”
Tech was next-to-last in the FBS in pass defense this season. The Red Raiders’ top cornerback, senior Bralyn Lux, opted out of the game in a decision not revealed until just before game time. Tech announced at the same time that Doak Walker Award semifinalist Tahj Brooks also was skipping the game.
While Brooks watched from the sideline, true freshman J’Koby Williams and Cameron Dickey rushed for 123 and 74 yards, respectively, each on 15 carries. Freshman quarterback Will Hammond, making his first college start after Behren Morton underwent shoulder surgery, completed 20 of 34 for 280 yards and a touchdown, but he was intercepted twice.
“Man, they’re going to be really good next season,” Arkansas defensive tackle Cameron Ball said. “The young quarterback, he was really talented. You can tell he was comfortable until we made him uncomfortable.
“The running backs, we were focusing on the head guy, Tahj Brooks. Unfortunately, he didn’t play, so the young guys we knew that they were coming in fired up. They had a couple of good runs, but overall we came together and we stopped them.”
Tech got within 21-19 by dominating the second quarter. Isaac Smith sacked Green for a safety, Williams broke a 54-yard touchdown run and Jalin Conyers took a direct snap and swept around the end for a 2-yard touchdown. Caleb Douglas, who caught five passes for 115 yards, set up Conyers’ touchdown with a spectacular catch down the middle, taking the ball away from cornerback Jaheim Singletary, who got hands on it first.
Arkansas retaliated with 18 unanswered points and held Tech scoreless in the second half until Hammond hit Coy Eakin for a 15-yard touchdown with 3:06 to go.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Arkansas’ big-play attack pops Texas Tech football in Liberty Bowl
