Texas Tech head football coach Matt Wells has been coy about who his starting quarterback will be heading into the 2021 football season, but it's pretty obvious the first man on the field taking snaps against the University of Houston will be Tyler Shough. I don't want to say it's been obvious since the day he transferred in, because I do think there was a legitimate quarterback competition, but for the last several weeks it's been clear that Shough is QB1.

I might even go as far as to say it's been clear since Tyler Shough announced his transfer to Texas Tech before Spring Practice even began. Thanos might call the decision, "Inevitable." It's not that Henry Colombi, Donovan Smith and Behren Morton are incapable of leading the offense, it's that there's a reason Shough transferred to Texas Tech.

Matt Wells worked hard to keep Behren Morton committed after he fired David Yost, yet Sonny Cumbie's first job on campus was finding a quarterback tailor-made for his offense and he didn't stay in-house for that. He went and convinced Tyler Shough to leave Oregon to come to Texas Tech.

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Now, I don't know if Tyler Shough's performance in the spring and fall have been leaps and bounds better than anyone else on campus. We aren't privy to every snap in practice. I did see that Tyler Shough took the most reps of any quarterback on Saturday at Texas Tech's final scrimmage. Then I heard Matt Wells tell the media that he would announce the starting quarterback "soon" before listing Behren Morton and Donovan Smith in competition with Henry Colombi for the second and third spots on the quarterback pecking order.

Matt Wells said at Big 12 Media Day that the quarterback room is better than it's ever been during his Texas Tech tenure when looking top to bottom at the available arms. That's probably a true statement, but only one can play at a time.

Again, on August 5th, Matt Wells said that there was, "absolutely a competition" for the starting quarterback job at Texas Tech. If that's the case and not just 'coach speak', it's time to end the competition. In that same press conference, Matt Wells spoke about the tactics used by coaches to not reveal the starter to keep the week one opponent on their toes.

Houston will be on their toes regardless come September 4th.

Even if Shough hasn't been officially named the starter, the team selected him as a captain earlier this summer. The only quarterback named to Texas Tech's leadership council. The team believes in him as the guy to lead them, the coaches need to echo that and head into the season with a full head of steam and plenty of reps for QB1.

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