Craven: Upcoming tests will tell us much more about Texas Tech

[caption id="attachment_18741" align="alignnone" width="800"]Photo by Ashley Wirz Photo by Ashley Wirz[/caption] Texas Tech and head coach Kliff Kingsbury face a chance to alter their national perception with a win over Arkansas this weekend. Even with the Razorbacks coming off an upset loss to Toledo, Arkansas is an SEC team that is expected to be tough in the SEC West, especially after the blowout victory win over Texas in a bowl game to finish last year’s season. The Red Raiders are untested in 2015, beating Sam Houston State and UTEP in impressive fashion, but the signs of the program finally turning around under Kingsbury are beginning to appear. The first sign is the success of quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Kingsbury, who got the job because he is an alum and coached Johnny Manziel at his time as offensive coordinator at Texas A&M, finally settled on a quarterback and his decision, albeit not a very tough one, looks spot on. Mahomes beat out Davis Webb for the job to start the season and all the former Whitehouse High School quarterback has done in two games is throw for eight touchdowns and rush for two more. He is 51-of-86 for 786 yards. His current 59.3 percent completion percentage is up nearly three points from his 2014 production. Football is a quarterback’s game, and Mahomes is proving to be a guy Kingsbury can build his program around for the next few seasons. The big question coming into the season was the new-look Tech defense and we’ll find out much more about the Red Raiders group after this game against Arkansas. The physicality of Arkansas’ rushing attack will be a unique challenge for Texas Tech, especially coming a week before conference play starts against an entirely different type of offense when TCU visits Lubbock. The next two weeks will define our perception of Texas Tech. If the Red Raiders can win one of these games, or at least be very competitive in two losses, the Red Raiders and Kingsbury will show significant improvement as a program. If Texas Tech can’t hang with an average SEC school and one of the table setters in the Big 12, questions will again form around the state of Texas Tech football and the direction of its head coach.