Seth Doege arrived on the Texas Tech campus as a somewhat
mysterious recruit. He was an extremely highly regarded prospect as far back as
his sophomore year in high school, but knee injuries totally destroyed the
remainder of his prep career. Expectations, therefore, were suitably mixed.
Doege had largely fallen off the radar of those outside the
Red Raider camp, while the insiders tended to view Doege as a player with
unlimited potential. Indeed, some observers predicted that he would reach the
highest heights while at Tech.
Predictably, one supposes, Doege fell between being an
afterthought and winning the Heisman. And his senior year, which was not
dramatically better than his junior campaign, was emblematic of his college
career.
Doege’s stats in 2012 were very
good to excellent. He threw for 324 yards per game, fifth most in the nation.
He completed 70 percent of his passes, third best in the nation. His 39 touchdown passes was bettered only by Geno
Smith. And his pass efficiency rating of 153 was good for number 19 in
the country.
On the downside, Doege’s 16
interceptions was among the most thrown by FBS
passers, and his 2.44 touchdown-to-interception ratio was pedestrian. Doege
rushed for only 59 yards on the season, and was sacked 19 times. A good many of
those sacks resulted from Doege holding onto the ball entirely too long.
Doege certainly feasted on the non-conference competition.
Against the underwhelming triumvirate of Northwestern State, Texas State and
New Mexico, Doege tossed for close to 1,100 yards and 14 touchdowns with only
one interception. His conference and bowl season would be somewhat rockier.
Doege opened conference play with a pair of subpar outings
against Iowa State and Oklahoma. In those two games, he threw five picks
against just three touchdowns.
Then Doege settled in and had a solid run through most of
the remaining schedule. Highlights were a seven-touchdown zero-interception
outing in a road win over TCU, and a six-touchdown one-interception performance
in Tech’s colossal upset of West Virginia. Not coincidentally, those were the
high spots of Tech’s season.
Doege bracketed his senior campaign with a few mediocre
outings. Against Oklahoma State and Minnesota, Doege threw for only 284 yards,
and in the final three games of the season (Oklahoma State, Baylor and
Minnesota) threw as many picks as touchdowns.
Prior to the season, offensive coordinator Neal Brown stated
his belief that maturity and increased confidence would smooth away the
inconsistency that was Doege’s chief hobgoblin in the
2011 season. It must be said, however, that inconsistency remained a Doege
hallmark to the end.
We were also led to believe that backup quarterback Michael Brewer would get many meaningful reps during the season. Brown and head coach
Tommy Tuberville went so far as to say that special packages tailored to
Brewer’s strengths would be installed throughout the season. Never happened.
Brewer threw the ball only 48 times and was never deployed
as a dual-threat quarterback. Consequently, any assessment of Brewer is
extremely provisional. All one can say with any certainty is that he seemed
confident and in command, and was extremely accurate with the balls that he did
throw.
Quarterback play was certainly not a weakness for the Red
Raiders in 2012, but neither was it an indubitable strength. And for the Texas
Tech offense, be it under Tommy Tuberville or Kliff Kingsbury, to reach its
potential, an undeniable strength the quarterback position must be.