Texas Tech receivers shine after a roller coaster season

It's been a roller coaster of a season offensively. You had the best receiving corps since possibly 2013, and the most inconsistent Quarterback play since Graham Harrells sophomore season. You had a young but disciplined offensive line and mixed bag of running backs. Without further ado, here are the final grades.

Quarterbacks: C

The Red Raiders had some of the most inconsistent Quarterback play since 2006 when a sophomore Graham Harrell was making his first start. Shimonek had a statistically good season, totalling 3547 passing yards and 30 touchdowns. Where Shimonek struggled was in his decision making and failure to execute on crucial plays. It was clear the pressure of not having a kicker got to him and his performance suffered. Without Shimonek however, the Red Raiders would have lost in Austin so he deserves a ton of credit for that win.

We also saw action from Mclane Carter and Jett Duffey this season. Carter recorded 359 yards and two touchdowns in two appearances against Eastern Washington and Texas. Duffey saw limited action due to missing the spring and summer but showed promise against Eastern Washington. Kingsbury said to expect an all out quarterback battle this off season and it will be interesting to see who gets the nod against Ole Miss in September.

Runningbacks: B+

This group may have been the most interesting to watch over the course of the season. Despite poor production in 2016, Justin Stockton got the start against Eastern Washington and finished as the Red Raiders leading rusher with 694 yards and four touchdowns. Nisby had a slow start but ended up leading the team in rushing touchdowns with a total of seven. The most exciting part of this group was undoubtedly JUCO. transfer Tre King, who had 504 yards and three touchdowns. The combination of King and Nisby should be exciting to watch next year especially behind an offensive line that returns all of it's starters.

Receivers: A+

This group was probably the best receiving corps that Texas Tech has had since the Eric Ward and Jace Amaro years. To the surprise of no one, Keke Coutee was the leading receiver with 1,026 yards and nine touchdowns. Good for 9th overall in the country. Dylan Cantrell was next with 790 yards and six touchdowns. This unit carried the offense this season and played as well as any single position group could possibly play. While you lose Cantrell and Batson next year, this group should pick up where they left off behind Coutee and T.J. Vasher.

Offensive line: C+

This was perhaps the youngest and most inexperienced group in the offense with all five starters being underclassmen. Because of this, they were undersized and overpowered by some of the better defenses in the Big 12 such as TCU and Oklahoma. That being said, pre snap penalties, which had been a problem since the Spike Dykes years and beyond, were virtually non existent. This group also showed steady improvement over the course of the year. With all five starters set to return next year, the future looks bright for this group.