Missouri fans will remember Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell for two atrocious throws last Oct. 7 that resulted in interception-turned-touchdowns for the Tigers. Otherwise, the first-year starter’s season lived up to the standard for a Texas Tech passer.

"After a point, it becomes taken for granted that you’re going to have a level of success throwing the ball at our place, which he did," Red Raiders Coach Mike Leach said at last week’s Big 12 Conference media days in San Antonio. "It’s funny, because as people talk about quarterbacks, they have a funny way of dismissing the additional 2,000 yards that he threw for. So, I guess his don’t count. If he’s not one of the better quarterbacks in the country, I’d like to know who is."

Now in his eighth year at Texas Tech, Leach made that last statement countless times when discussing Harrell’s predecessors, Kliff Kingsbury, B.J. Symons, Sonny Cumbie and Cody Hodges. Last fall, Harrell joined the others in eclipsing 4,000 passing yards and produced the fourth-most prolific passing season at Tech (4,555 yards). His 38 touchdown passes rank third on the school’s single-season list.

Still, Harrell’s job security wasn’t guaranteed this off-season. Redshirt freshman Taylor Potts was given every chance to unseat him this spring, an experience that Leach thinks will make Harrell a better player this season.

"Sometimes as a guy has success, there’s the temptation as a coach, as a player, as anybody, to feel like, ‘I’ve got this figured out,’ " Leach said. "And then, of course, they say it’s what you learn after you know everything that counts."

During the spring, Leach also turned up the heat on returning running back Shannon Woods. For now, Kobey Lewis is listed as the starter despite the fact that Woods led the Big 12 in all-purpose yards last season and averaged 6.1 yards per carry, the most by a Red Raiders back since Byron Hanspard in 1996.

Up front, Texas Tech returns only one starter on the offensive line, 350-pound left guard Louis Vasquez. Three sophomores and a junior, right tackle Rylan Reed, are expected to fill the other spots. The group will be coached by first-year assistant Matt Moore, who spent one year at Troy after spending the previous six years coordinating the offense at the highly successful Hoover, Ala., High School program.

Skill position players get most of the credit for the Red Raiders’ offensive firepower, but Leach, a former offensive line coach, put the spotlight on his blockers in San Antonio.

"I don’t have too many receivers that I wouldn’t swap for great O-linemen, with all due respect to our receivers," he said. "That’s why they have football to begin with, because of linemen. … Everybody would be involved with basketball or soccer or something if it wasn’t for linemen."

As for the defense, last year’s unit was Tech’s best since Leach’s first season with the team and led the Big 12 in defending the pass. Hard-hitting safeties Joe Garcia and Darcel McBath form one of the better tandems in the conference.

The defense returns only four other starters, but that’s not always a bad thing, Leach said.

"That’s the tricky thing about the Big 12," he said. "There’s going to be some team that’s supposed to be down. But, hell, the new guys might be better than the old guys were. … I think that this unit has more explosion to it."

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