Texas Tech running back Da’Leon Ward is listed at 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds, but he’s bigger in Kliff Kingsbury’s eyes. All the carries that went to Justin Stockton and DeMarcus Felton the first six weeks of the season on Saturday went to Ward, the freshman from Dallas Skyline who made his first career start in Tech’s 66-59 loss to No. 16 Oklahoma.
“I think we just felt like having a little bigger back last week was going to be important for us,” Kingsbury said Monday. “Some of those third-and-shorts, we were able to hand the ball off. We failed on those early in the season and kind of learned our lesson that we needed a bigger, more powerful back in those situations.