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Counting Down The Best Wins Of The Kliff Kingsbury Era

By Matthew Conner

SAN DIEGO, CA - DECEMBER 30: Head Coach Kliff Kingsbury of the Texas Tech Red Raiders gets the Gatorade dump after his teams' 37-23 win over the Arizona State Sun Devils during their National University Holiday Bowl Game on December 30, 2013 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. (Photo by Donald Miralle/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO, CA - DECEMBER 30: Head Coach Kliff Kingsbury of the Texas Tech Red Raiders gets the Gatorade dump after his teams' 37-23 win over the Arizona State Sun Devils during their National University Holiday Bowl Game on December 30, 2013 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. (Photo by Donald Miralle/Getty Images) /
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AUSTIN, TX – NOVEMBER 24: Head coach Kliff Kingsbury of the Texas Tech Red Raiders surveys the field as the team arrives before the game against the Texas Longhorns at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on November 24, 2017 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TX – NOVEMBER 24: Head coach Kliff Kingsbury of the Texas Tech Red Raiders surveys the field as the team arrives before the game against the Texas Longhorns at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on November 24, 2017 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images) /

No. 4 2015 Texas

In Kingsbury’s No. 4 win he accomplished something that Red Raider fans had waited 18 years to see; he won in Austin.  Tech’s thrilling 48-45 win on Thanksgiving night was one of the most exciting and memorable games in program history.

The game will forever be remembered for the heroics of inside receiver Jakeem Grant who scored the winning touchdown on a trick play in which he crouched behind the offensive line before scurrying around the end for a 40-yard score.

Grant had a night to remember putting up 147 total yards and two touchdowns while passing Michael Crabtree as the program’s all-time leading receiver.  Running back DeAndre Washington ran for 163 yards and two touchdowns on the night and Pat Mahomes passed for 372 yards and a TD despite intermittent rain during the game.

The victory was significant for the program and Kingsbury both.  Tech knocked off the Horns for the first time since the famous Michael Crabtree 2008 last-minute TD catch and won in Austin for the first time since Spike Dykes and Zebbie Lethridge pulled off a 24-10 win nearly two decades prior.

And in beating Texas, Kingsbury earned a signature win over the program’s top rival.  It was just the third time Texas Tech knocked off Texas in the post-Spike Dykes era that dates back to 2000.

The win also put Tech at 7-5 and into the Texas Bowl a season after Tech went just 4-8.  Over the course of his career, Kingsbury has won road games in tough places to play like Ft. Worth and Fayetteville, Arkansas but nothing was as satisfying as ending the program’s drought in Austin, just 45 minutes away from where he grew up.

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