As the 9th Best Team in the Big 12 TTU’s Best Player is a Punter
Preseason polls are pretty much useless most seasons. They might help to get you ranked early in the season, but it's generally your play on the field, wins, and losses that matter in the end. That being said, the preseason polls are generally close as it pertains to conferences. Sure, there is the outlier season when the basketball media picks a team to finish 7th and they win the conference and play in the national championship game, but generally, teams finish around where they are picked.
That's not great news for the Red Raiders who were picked 9th in today's Big 12 preseason poll.
Kansas, obviously, is the team ranked below Texas Tech. West Virginia is just ahead of Texas Tech in votes, but then there is a big leap to Kansas State TCU and Baylor. Then, there is another leap that puts Iowa State, Texas, and Oklahoma State as true contenders and Oklahoma as the preseason favorite.
All that would matter slightly more if this was a conventional offseason. It might be that the Big 12 cancels their non-conference games like the Big 10 and Pac 12 did. If that's the case, the preseason poll might matter even more. With no true indication of how a team would perform outside of conference the only metric to grade a season on would be how the team finished relative to how they were picked to finish.
If the Big 12 has to cancel more than the non-conference these polls would matter even less.
Adding to the preseason poll is the All-Big 12 preseason team that was released alongside the poll. The Red Raiders added three to the list. Offensive lineman Jack Anderson, defensive end Eli Howard and punter Austin McNamara.
Football expert Phil Steele also released his All-Big 12 teams for the 2020 preseason adding Austin McNamara to his preseason All-American second team as well.
Joining McNamara on the Phil Steele All-Big 12 first team is Eli Howard, Riko Jeffers and DaMarcus Fields. The Second team is manned by a lone Red Raider, long snapper Luke Rizzo. The Third team is the most prolific collection of Texas Tech talent running back SaRodorick Thompson, receivers TJ Vasher and Erik Ezukanma, offensive linemen Jack Anderson and Dawson Deaton, JUCO linebacker Krishon Merriweather and Zech McPhearson.
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