Piling up milestones

Two of Texas Tech’s seniors reached key milestones during the Red Raiders’ win Saturday against New Mexico.

With an 18-yard pass to Bradley Marquez in the first quarter, quarterback Seth Doege became the eighth Tech signal-caller to eclipse the 5,000-yard career passing mark. Graham Harrell is Tech’s all-time passing leader with 15,793 yards.

Not to be outdone, running back Eric Stephens rushed for a 21-yard touchdown in the first quarter and in doing so became the seventh Tech player to tally 4,000 career all-purpose yards.

Wes Welker is the all-time Tech leader with 5,730 all-purpose yards.

Cornerback injured

Tech backup cornerback Jeremy Reynolds suffered a right knee injury that could sideline him long term. Reynolds posted on his Twitter account that he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Tech officials initially said it was a sprained knee.

“We won’t speculate,” Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said after the game. “It doesn’t look good. We’ll wait and see tomorrow. We’ll have the MRI.”

Reynolds was covering a second-quarter kickoff on which the Red Raiders recovered a fumble.

Medical personnel were quickly waved onto the field, and a cart brought in almost immediately to cart off Reynolds, who was in despair.

The redshirt freshman made his first career interception last week against Texas State.

Starts joins the fray

Defensive tackle Michael Starts received his first game action, three days after Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said coaches would love to redshirt the 6-foot-4, 303-pound freshman from Waco La Vega.

“We need five down linemen inside, somebody that can give us some push and they can’t move out of the way,” Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said. “Now that we’ve taken the redshirt off him, we’ll turn him loose, work him hard in practice.”

Starts entered in the third quarter and finished the game with three tackles and a sack. On the sack, he squashed B.R. Holbrook for a 12-yard loss after the New Mexico quarterback dodged defensive end Kindred Evans, then defensive tackle Donte Phillips and defensive end Pete Robertson.

Tuberville said he liked what he saw of Starts from the sideline.

“He did well,” Tuberville said. “He uses his hands well. He’s a strong kid. He can help us.”

Winbush gets the call

Sophomore linebacker Zach Winbush got his first career start, replacing strong-side linebacker Sam Eguavoen. Winbush, solid against the run, was credited with being in on three tackles, including one behind the line.

“Zach had a really good week of preparation,” defensive coordinator Art Kaufman said. “Through fall camp, he was getting closer and closer. I thought he’d earned the right to see what he could do, and he did a nice job.”

Kaufman said he thinks of Winbush and Eguavoen as giving the team two starters at one spot.

“We’ve got a chance to really develop some depth in a spot where we didn’t have much starting camp,” Kaufman said.

Compiled by Nick Kosmider and
Don Williams