Texas Tech receiver Detron Lewis didn’t have to ask what was expected of him this year. All he had to do was keep his eyes open as he made his way about campus and around town.

Tech apparel retailers such as Campus Design and Red Raider Outfitter got three replica jerseys for this season from Tech supplier Under Armour: Taylor Potts’ No. 15, Baron Batch’s No. 25 and Lewis’ No. 17.

“I used to talk to my roommate, Tramain Swindall, about how I used to always see 6s and 5s,” Lewis said in a preseason conversation, referring to the replica jerseys of Graham Harrell and Mike Crabtree, stars of the last two years. “I used to always tell him, ‘I can’t wait until I see my jersey in stores.’ That’s a big accomplishment. To see your jersey in stores and to actually see it on somebody and they’re wearing it, that’s pretty neat.”

Of course, the stores, in a yearly guessing game, order the uniform numbers of players expected to be that season’s brightest stars. Lewis just made sense after a sophomore year in which he caught 76 passes for 913 yards and three touchdowns.

So far this season, Lewis hasn’t disappointed, but he’s still working on taking it to another level. His six-game totals — 30 receptions for 385 yards and four touchdowns — closely track his numbers at the same time last year, which were 31 for 444 and one TD.

That he’s not been the second coming of Crabtree isn’t for lack of aiming high.

“The only advice I can go off of is what he used to tell me here,” the 6-foot, 205-pound junior said early in the year. “I learned to come out here and work hard each and every day. I learned how to separate myself from other receivers, not just on my team, but I want to separate myself from all the receivers all over the country and hopefully try to keep that trophy here. You know the one I’m talking about, too.”

That would be the Biletnikoff Award, won the last two years by Crabtree. The recipient gets one and the program gets one, and Tech’s sits as a motivational device in the Red Raiders’ locker room.

In last week’s 66-14 rout of Kansas State, Lewis caught eight passes for 100 yards and two TDs, and the Raiders are taking it as a sign that he could be ready to unleash a big second half.

“Yeah, I think he will,” inside receivers coach Lincoln Riley said this week. “He’s gotten on the same page with the quarterbacks. He came out of the blocks really strong, really played well against North Dakota and then since then he hasn’t been his usual explosive self. (But) he’s had his best week of practice this week, and I think he’s really going to start to get into a groove.”

Lewis was at his best in the opener when he had eight catches for 146 yards. Then he went through a four-game stretch averaging less than four catches and 35 yards a game. Though no one from Tech has acknowledged as much, it might be no coincidence that the down period came right after Lewis suffered a leg injury in game two.

Swindall, the Raiders’ other starting inside receiver, leads the team in yards per catch at 19.3 and is second in touchdown catches with five. A lot of Swindall’s success has come from his breaking tackles and making determined runs after the catch.

Riley said he’d like to see more of that style — and a little less juking — from Lewis.

“That’s something we’ve really stressed hard with him,” Riley said. “I think his explosive plays, his big plays, will be more in the second half of the season if he’ll improve on that and do what he’s done this week in practice.”

Riley said Lewis has risen to the occasion as far as becoming “probably the biggest leader in our group.”

Lewis said he felt no pressure being the top returning receiver in Crabtree’s absence.

“I don’t know if (the slow last month) stemmed from that — maybe trying too hard to make it happen, to be the No. 1 receiver and all that,” Riley said. “Maybe there was some of that. But it’s out of his system now, and he’s really playing well. I’m just looking forward to it carrying over.”

It might help the cause that next week Lewis gets to face his hometown program, Texas A&M. His career high in catches (nine for 92 yards) came last year at Kyle Field.

Though he was born and raised in College Station and grew up right next to the A&M campus, Lewis never got a scholarship offer from the Aggies.

More motivation maybe?

“I’ve been asked that question a lot, but I don’t really care now, because I think I’m in the right place,” he said. “But honestly, I do put more into the A&M game. I want to rip them up, because I was right up the street back home and they didn’t look my way.”