Crabtree's Receiving Climb Could Continue Against Cavaliers

* If Crabtree had not caught a touchdown pass in the entire second half of the season, he still would have tied for the 14th-best season ever. If he hadn't caught another pass over that stretch, he would have finished 22nd in the nation with 1,079 yards.

"You got to where you just kind of expected it," Texas Tech receivers coach Lincoln Riley said. "It was an unbelievable streak."

He seemed on the verge of breaking Troy Edwards's record of 27 touchdowns, set in 1998 at Louisiana Tech. He settled for 21, tied for fifth all-time. Whether he can break Edwards's career record of 50 may hinge on how many seasons he stays at Texas Tech. Because he redshirted, he can leave after next season.

Should Crabtree bolt, next season will be his chance to prove he can win the Heisman Trophy by catching the football. Only two wide receivers have ever won -- Tim Brown of Notre Dame in 1987 and Desmond Howard of Michigan in 1991 -- and both made some of their most indelible plays returning kicks.

Even if you count tight ends Leon Hart (Notre Dame, 1949) and Larry Kelley (Yale, 1936), that makes four receivers out of 73 winners. Crabtree does not play on special teams, and "you have to also return punts and kicks to win the Heisman as a receiver," said Chris Huston, who runs the Web site HeismanPundit.com.

But for every detriment, Crabtree smashes conventional thinking. Those who decry Crabtree's numbers as a byproduct of Texas Tech's unconventional offense may want to consider that no Red Raider had caught more than 98 passes or gained 1,300 yards receiving under Leach before Crabtree.

"It's just kind of a foolish thing to say," Leach said. "Everybody's got a system."

Said Riley: "We don't have magical routes. We run posts and curls and all the same routes everybody else runs."

But nobody, perhaps, runs them with more success than Crabtree, whose career is working out better than even he imagined.