By Don Williams | AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

No. 1 Texas at No. 7 Texas Tech, Sat. 7 p.m.

Texas Tech got Edward Britton going early last week. On the team’s second play from scrimmage, Britton ran a post pattern into a wide-open middle of the field, snagged a Graham Harrell pass and dashed for the end zone like a Labrador off his leash.

Just two minutes past opening kickoff, and Britton had the Red Raiders on the scoreboard at Kansas.

“Coach told me before the game started that we were going to call that play pretty early in the game,” Britton said, “and then as soon as I saw the safety roll over (to the opposite side), I knew it was going to happen.”

The Raiders would be thrilled if Britton kept it up for the rest of the season. And they’d sure like him to duplicate his performance against Texas. Last season in Austin, Britton caught seven passes for 116 yards – both career highs – and scored a touchdown.

Lately, Britton has shown signs that he could break out at midseason for the second year in a row.

Six games into his sophomore season, Britton was averaging fewer than three catches and 31 yards per game and hadn’t scored. Over the final seven games, he caught 32 passes for 446 yards and four touchdowns – per-game averages of 4.6 catches, 64 yards and a TD at least every other game.

This season, Britton has started to pick it up again after a slow start. He caught a pass for 56 yards three weeks ago against Nebraska and the TD last week at Kansas covered 55 yards, starting a day of three catches for a season-high 106 yards. He also caught four passes the week before at Texas A&M.

“I just feel like ultimately you’ve got to wait your turn,” the junior from El Paso said. “You’ve got to wait for the ball to come to you and hopefully be in a position to make a big play or make plays to help the team, just for us to move forward.”

Although he caught a couple of touchdown passes in non-conference play, Britton didn’t reach 30 yards receiving in any of the first six games. Lyle Leong moved into the starting lineup at split end five games ago, but with the exception of Leong’s three-TD game at Kansas State, Britton has had the better numbers four of the five games.

“I think his development’s pretty good,” Tech coach Mike Leach said. “I’m glad he caught some passes. Some of it’s just (a matter of) us getting it to him. He’s always been a guy that took a couple of games to get in stride. He’s done that.”

Britton and Leong haven’t been high-volume receivers, but they do have six touchdowns between them.

“We both have our strengths,” Britton said. “We both have plays that we’re really good at, and we always try to work hard. We have our own little rules about when we’re going to go in, when we’re going to come out. I think it works pretty good, me and him over there.”