Has Texas Tech football oversold its heralded new edge rushers? | Don Williams

Michael Crabtree's Texas Tech football career was short and memorable. Crabtree caught 231 passes for 3,127 yards and 41 touchdowns in only two seasons, became the first two-time winner of the Biletnikoff Award and then turned pro to no one's surprise.

At some point before the 2009 season, Mike Leach suggested the Red Raiders could have an even more productive receiving game. Everyone knew the football was going to Crabtree in 2007 and 2008, the reasoning went, and with him off to the league the Red Raiders could spread it around more.

Crabtree was a once-in-a-generation college talent, especially at a program such as Texas Tech's. The notion that the passing game had a chance to be better in the post-Crabtree era was absurd, of course.

Just like the notion that the Red Raiders would have a better pass rush in the year after Tyree Wilson departed. Like Crabtree, Wilson was a top-10 NFL draft choice and a rare talent for Tech: long-levered, athletic at 6-foot-6 and 275 pounds and able to overwhelm offensive tackles with his power.

So I feel bad for Myles Cole and Steve Linton, who were built up in the offseason to an irresponsible degree. Texas Tech led the Big 12 in sacks last season. Through two games this year, the Red Raiders are 0-2 with three sacks, none from defensive edge players. Tech has two quarterback hurries, none from edge players.

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"That's our challenge to both of them," defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter said Monday. "Both of them, we believe, have a lot of talent. They're playing well within the scheme, but they're not productive enough, and in our defense, our edges, our Star (field safety/outside linebacker), those players have to make a lot of plays for us to be as good as we should be on defense.

"I think both those guys are probably a little bit disappointed in their production. It's something we work on every week, in their fundamentals of get-off, pass rush, (counter moves), things where they can make plays and we anticipate that, with more reps, they'll get better at that."

We pointed out more than once this spring and summer that Linton, the newcomer from Syracuse, and Cole, the second-year transfer from Louisiana-Monroe, had 4 1/2 and 1 1/2 career sacks, respectively, and they're now fifth- and sixth-year college players.

Tech general manager James Blanchard said they'd be "the best edge duo in the Big 12."

Analysts swooned. Jim Nagy, executive director of the Senior Bowl, tweeted "(I)t's easy to recognize Linton's twitched-up early-round talent." The Athletic's Dane Brugler put Linton No. 8 on his list of draft prospects among senior edge rushers.

The Athletic's Bruce Feldman put Cole at No. 35 in his annual, widely read "Freaks List" for 2023.

"Word inside the Tech program is Cole’s more fluid in space than Wilson," Feldman wrote, "and probably bends a little better than the first-rounder. There’s also not much difference in the two at the point of attack, but Wilson really played with an edge like he was The Guy, and that showed up on film."

I'd disagree that Cole's more fluid in space than Wilson, who chased down plays like a gazelle. I'd disagree more strongly that there's not much difference in the two at the point of attack. Wilson, as the saying goes, put vaunted Texas' offensive tackles on skates the very first game he suited up in a Tech uniform. You could see right away he was something different.

Cole and Linton are now about 50 and 30 games into their college careers, no doubt doing their best to be a Tyree Wilson clone and an early-round draft pick. Let me reiterate that neither asked for this. They aren't the ones who turned the spotlight on themselves. They're just the ones who have to deal with it.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Has Texas Tech football oversold its heralded new edge rushers? | Don Williams