The 2023 Texas Tech offense entered the season without a true star. After six games, one has emerged in running back Tahj Brooks who has had four-straight games with 100-plus yards on the ground after Saturday's win over Baylor.

Offensive coordinator Zach Kittley has had to adjust, a traditional air raid play caller, who has never run the ball at this clip.

“I think every season you're going to have something happen, you're going to have things go down, and you have to adapt. Never have I ever, in my career, have I run the quarterback, and then last year we got into a scenario where I felt Donovan Smith's a great running quarterback and so he got to the point we're going to use the quarterback run game,” Kittley said. “You know, it's definitely a little bit different. But again, I think each week you have got to go into say how we win games. whatever it takes to win, definitely still seeing some of those air-raid roots and you're still seeing some of those concepts being called in these games.”

Texas Tech has run the ball on 49.1-percent of offensive plays this season, Kittley’s highest in his career and compared to the 32.3-percent in his only non-Texas Tech season at the FBS level in 2021 at Western Kentucky, second lowest in the nation.

In 2022, the Red Raiders ran the ball on 46.4-percent of their plays, with Tyler Shough and SaRodorick Thompson taking the bulk of those carries.

“I think this year it's been obviously a little bit easier just because you have a guy like Tahj who's getting the bulk of the carries,” Kittley said. “Versus last year where it was a 50-50 split with him and SaRodorick, it almost makes it a little easier because now you kind of understand a little bit more of his running style.”

Brooks has obviously been the catalyst in this, rumbling for 6.0 yards per carry in 2023 and is averaging 115-yards per game this year.

“You know, and I think it helps when you do have a guy like Tahj back there, because you know, we've opened up some great holes for him and then you look at some other snaps and he's doing a lot on his own,” Kittley said. “So, we just felt good about him. And he felt good and wasn't getting fatigued or nothing. We're still going to try to lean on that run game as much as we can.”

Kittley also gave some insight on his usage of the boundary, something the fans have been frustrated with at times as the middle of the field isn't used as often by Texas Tech.

"They were playing a lot of what we call a wall coverage and so they're they're literally turning their back to the middle of the field, trying to walk you to the perimeter," Kittley said. "Whenever they want to do that, we'll throw to the sideline. I'm an old school air-raid guy, I want to run Mesh and Y-Cross to get the ball in the middle of the field, but I don't want to bang my head against the wall just trying to throw you know balls over the middle."

The Red Raiders haven’t given up on the passing game, just missing a deep shot to Jerand Bradley that was wiped due to an offensive pass interference call.

“Yeah, I mean, it's interesting this was before the Baylor game, but he was the No. 14 targeted receiver in the nation,” Kittley said. “And again, you know this last week, they're giving us the short-to-intermediate out routes to the slot receivers and those outside guys just didn't get featured as much in those games. I think that could flip this week, for example.”

Kittley has been able to get the ball in the flat, succeeding with the RPO game of late, and playing to the current strength of his quarterback, Behren Morton, who is dealing with a shoulder injury.

“That was actually very similar to the kind of stuff we had done against Houston, a lot of the RPO game,” Kittley said. “Just kind of picking on the conflict player and when they trigger, we're going to spit some out there. We’ve got a couple true pass concepts we threw out there to the flat some to Myles (Price), I thought he had a good game. Got open and Behren delivered the ball.”

The Texas Tech offense will look to win in the trenches again this weekend against Kansas State, having the opportunity to get above .500 for the first time this season and up to 3-1 in Big 12 Conference play.

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