Wreck'Em Red
Fansided

Can Texas Tech End Any Of These Streaks In 2018?

By Matthew Conner

NORMAN, OK - OCTOBER 28: The Texas Tech Red Raiders mascot Raider Red performs during the game against the Oklahoma Sooners at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on October 28, 2017 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated Texas Tech 49-27. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK - OCTOBER 28: The Texas Tech Red Raiders mascot Raider Red performs during the game against the Oklahoma Sooners at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on October 28, 2017 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated Texas Tech 49-27. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 6
Next
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /

Eight-Consecutive Losing Big 12 Seasons

During the Kingsbury and Tuberville eras, Texas Tech has made a habit of performing well in the non-conference portion of the schedule only to fall apart in Big 12 play.  Since 2010, Texas Tech has complied a 23-2 non-conference regular season record with its only two losses coming in 2014 to Arkansas and 2016 to Arizona State.

But during that same span, Tech has a Big 12 record of just 25-46.  Neither Tommy Tuberville nor Kilff Kingsbury has guided Tech to a winning conference season.

Tuberville compiled a 9-17 Big 12 record, good for a winning percentage of just 34.6%.  Kingsbury has been slightly worse with a 16-29 record, which translates to a 32.6% success rate. By comparison, Mike Leach was able to put together a Big 12 record of 47-33 (58.7%).

It must be pointed out that in Leach’s time, teams played only eight Big 12 games per season, one fewer than in the current round-robin format that has been in place since 2012.  In theory, playing an extra conference game makes the schedule far tougher for today’s teams as a non-conference cupcake game has been replaced by an extra league game.

But with the presence of Kansas on the schedule every year, there has been a guaranteed win for the Red Raiders.  Suggesting that playing Kansas is any tougher than playing a non Power-5 team would be a fallacy.  In fact, some of the FCS teams Tech has faced in recent years have been better than recent KU teams.  Since 2012, Tech has outscored Kansas by an average of 46.5 – 21.5 and only once (2012) has Tech failed to beat the Jayhawks by fewer than ten points.

In the Leach era, Tech played the Jayhawks in only half of his seasons taking a guaranteed Big 12 win off the board twice out of every four-year cycle as teams played only half of the teams in the other division of the conference each season.

But there is reason to believe that 2018 could be the best opportunity Kingsbury has to finally post a winning Big 12 record.  There has never been a season in the history of the conference with more parity (at least on paper) than this year.

While there are five Big 12 teams in the first top-25 poll, most see the league as being without a truly dominant team.  Tech is not the only team trying to figure out its quarterback situation this year so if Kingsbury can find an answer at that position and the Red Raider defense is as good as expected, the Red Raiders could finally have another winning Big 12 record.

Home/Texas Tech Football