Austin McNamara is the All-American Zach Kittley Wants to Keep Sidelined
On Saturday against Murray State, Texas Tech scored touchdowns on their first eight possessions. Every drive in the first half was a touchdown. Then, the first two in the second half were touchdowns. That means All-American punter Austin McNamara sat on the sideline until about 4:30 minutes left in the third quarter.
McNamara ended the night with four punts averaging 45.8 yards, with three of them landing inside the 20. But if Texas Tech Offensive Coordinator Zach Kittley got his way, McNamara wouldn't punt again this season.
The punter is always a great asset when you need one, but if he's punting a lot, your offense isn't doing that great. Texas Tech football poked fun at the limited usage against Murray State on social media with a great short video of Kittley telling McNamara the only people who wanted to see him punt are, "the other team and your mom."
When Kliff Kingsbury was at Texas Tech, all he thought about was scoring points. Unfortunately, Kingsbury didn't have the support to help the team to remember to also stop the other guys from scoring. Kittley is built like Kingsbury in a lot of ways. Not just physically, but he's also got that always score mentality. Field position battle? What is this, the Big 10?
The good news for Kittley and the Red Raiders is that Joey McGuire and Tim DeRuyter are there to take care of the defensive side of the ball. This weekend Kittley hopes to keep McNamara on the sidelines again as the Red Raiders take on Houston at 3 p.m. inside Jones AT&T Stadium.