Inside Texas Tech football's efforts to mitigate Mason Tharp's concussion history

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
When the Texas Tech football team opens the season in less than a month, Mason Tharp will have waited longer to get back into the fray than most of his teammates. The tall tight end missed the Red Raiders' last three games of the 2022 season with a concussion that Tech coach Joey McGuire said was Tharp's third since he started college.
The 6-foot-9, 270-pound junior from Klein is back on the field for preseason practice with extra accoutrements, hoping for a healthy season.
He's wearing a Q-Collar manufactured by Q-30 Innovations and a custom mouthpiece designed and fitted by BrainVault. Both manufacturers promote their products as providing protection against the effects of head trauma.
"We're doing a bunch of different stuff to try to see (what helps)," Tech coach Joey McGuire told the Avalanche-Journal in May.
Tharp suffered his most recent concussion the week of the Red Raiders' Nov. 19 game at Iowa State. He said the effects didn't last all that long, but he missed the rest of the season and was withheld from contact in spring football. The Tech staff wanted to protect him for an extended period and not subject him to unnecessary hits.
Now he's cleared again for contact.
"Whatever is in the past is in the past," he said last week, adding that his status is "brand-new, and everything's going to be full go for the season."
Texas Tech football players trying custom mouthpieces as concussion safeguard
Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard and Houston Texans tight end Dalton Schultz are among the players who have worn a Q-Collar. The device applies gentle pressure on the sides of the neck that slightly increase blood volume in the brain. Q-30 Innovations says that helps cushions brain impact with the skull during hits to the head.
Tharp started wearing a Q-Collar this spring. Also in the spring, he was among what he estimated to be about 30 Red Raiders players fitted for the BrainVault mouthguard.
"If we feel good about it and there's science behind it, we might go full team that way," McGuire said in May. "There's just not enough science behind that mouthpiece yet."
BrainVault's website describes its product as "a revolutionary and patented mouthguard that has been proven to help reduce the risk of concussion." One of the key features, the company says, is that it "optimally aligns the lower jaw in a position that strengthens neck muscles to minimize concussive forces."
"They came and molded it to our mouth," Tharp said. "If you ever got a retainer at the dentist, they do the same thing — put that putty in your mouth — and align your jaw up with your neck. There's more science behind it than what I really know, but it's supposed to help prevent concussions."
Texas Tech football's Mason Tharp hoping for healthier season in '23
Tharp's absence from the lineup coincided with a season-ending surge in which the Red Raiders won their last four games, including a bowl. For all except the first of those games, Tharp was reduced to watching.
No fun for him.
"You don't want to come in and get hurt," he said, "but you have to understand that's a part of the game, so you can't really be mad at it. Just kind of accept it and move on."
Last August, Tech linebacker Kosi Eldridge related the difficulties a concussion caused him in November and early December 2021. Tharp's effects weren't as prolonged.
"You get, for sure, a week off with that and see how you feel after a week," Tharp said. "My effects didn't really linger. I think the max it had gone was two weeks, so it wasn't months like it has been for some people."