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'He's a dude, man': QB Will Hammond shines as No. 16 Texas Tech football wins at No. 18 Utah
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- 'He's a dude, man': QB Will Hammond shines as No. 16 Texas Tech football wins at No. 18 Utah
Will Hammond is the future for the Texas Tech football team at quarterback, and on Saturday, Sept. 20, he was more than ready for the present, too, even in front of a hostile crowd on the road.
Coming on in relief of Behren Morton after the starter took a shot to the head , Hammond led the 16th-ranked Red Raiders to 24 points on their last four possessions of a 34-10 victory against No. 18 Utah in Salt Lake City.
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Utah (3-1, 0-1 in the Big 12) closed within 13-10 on a Wayshawn Parker touchdown with 10:22 left before a roaring crowd at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Tech (4-0, 1-0) responded with Hammond throwing scoring passes of 24 yards to Terrance Carter Jr. and 21 yards to Reggie Virgil, sandwiched around Cameron Dickey's second TD run of the game, a 24-yarder.
"He's a dude, man," head coach Joey McGuire said. "He's a guy that's played. .... We expect him to go out there and do that."
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Hammond finished with 169 yards and the 2 TDs on 13-for-16 passing and ran 8 times for 61 yards. It was the eighth career game for the redshirt freshman from Hutto. He gave Tech a second-half spark last year in a 35-34 loss at TCU and started the Liberty Bowl after Morton underwent shoulder surgery.
"The one thing a lot of people struggle with is knowing their role," McGuire said, "and then when they're called on to play their role, they're not ready because they're either sulking or feeling sorry for their selves or thinking they should get more. The great thing about Will Hammond , he's extremely mature, he knows exactly what his role is right now on this team and that is to be our backup, and when he comes in the game, we're going to run our offense."
Morton left the game three plays into the third quarter after he'd scrambled for 10 yards on second-and-28. Utah linebacker Johnathan Hall came in low to finish off the tackle, and Hall's shoulder caught Morton in the helmet. Then Morton's head hit the turf.
Morton had already been shaken up in the first half when defensive end John Henry Daley blasted him on a pass rush.
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McGuire said he seemed OK after the game, though.
"He was in there celebrating with the team and gave me a big hug," McGuire said. "I know he's frustrated because he wants to be out there and he wants to be the guy leading us down the field, but he'll be back and be ready to go."
Tech has an open date before facing Houston on Oct. 4 in another road game.
McGuire said Morton balked at coming out.
"In fact, there was a couple of times he was saying, 'Mike, I'm good. Leave me alone,'" McGuire said, referring to head athletic trainer Michael Ramirez. "He was going to, at one point, stay on the field. We were like, 'Hey, let's just get you checked out,' because he didn't want to come out."
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Tech punted on the first three series Hammond was in, but he heated up. He keyed scoring drives with a 33-yard pass to Caleb Douglas and got 32 yards on a quarterback keeper.
"The one thing that he does add a little bit is we're going to run him a little bit more in the quarterback run game," McGuire said. "That helped because that added another hat (blocker) and kept the chains moving."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Will Hammond shines as No. 16 Texas Tech football wins at No. 18 Utah
