Douglas

Coleman III

Coleman (6'1/200) injured his foot late in the third quarter of Saturday’s game, and has not returned to action since. It goes without saying that this is a big loss for the Red Raiders, as the senior has been one of the best defensive backs in college football this season. We’ll have an update on Coleman’s status once more information becomes available.

Coleman (6'1/200) didn’t miss too much time while being evaluated for an injury that he suffered late in the third quarter. The senior safety, who was named a midseason All-American by The Athletic earlier this month, has intercepted six passes this season.

Leaving off the FBS interception leader through seven weeks would have been egregious, so it’s no surprise Coleman (6'1/200) is on here. Coleman has six picks on the year, while no other Power 5 player even has five interceptions. Coleman is a ballhawk in a pass-happy Big-12. In snagging so many interceptions, Coleman regularly gives Texas Tech’s offense to keep up with the other top offenses around the conference. The Red Raiders will need him to come up clutch again on Saturday against Iowa State.

Even if adjusting for players who may have gotten injured and missed games, Coleman (6'1/200) still has the best interception rate in the country. He averages one interception per game, whereas no other player is above .80 interceptions per game (i.e., four interceptions in five games). Oddly enough, Coleman did not record an interception in the team’s first two games. He nabbed two against Arizona, one against Oklahoma, and then two in this week’s upset over Oklahoma State. Who knows if Coleman will finish the year with the interception lead, but he has already earned himself a good head start.

Coleman admitted that this was understandably not the case when he played as a true freshman last season. Said the 6-foot-1, 175-pounder, “Last year a lot of the time the offense was able to know what cover we were in, because of me not knowing how to disguise our defense well. So I worked on that.” Coleman appeared in 11 games last season, including three starts. For the campaign as a whole he registered 26 tackles, an interception and six passes defensed.