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Texas Tech football: Breaking down the 2019 schedule

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TX - SEPTEMBER 12: The Texas Tech Red Raiders mascot Fearless Champion leads the team onto the field prior to the game against the UTEP Miners September 12, 2015 at Jones AT
LUBBOCK, TX - SEPTEMBER 12: The Texas Tech Red Raiders mascot Fearless Champion leads the team onto the field prior to the game against the UTEP Miners September 12, 2015 at Jones AT /
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The 2019 Texas Tech football schedule has been released so let’s take a look at some of the more interesting aspects including a return to Waco.

Though the 2018 season is only half-way complete, the focus of Texas Tech football fans turned to 2019 for a few moments on Thursday with the release of next year’s full schedule.  The Red Raiders will open the season at home on August 31st against FCS member Montana State in a much more normal season opener than 2018’s neutral site game against Ole Miss out of the SEC.

The next week, the Red Raiders host UTEP in Jones Stadium.  Tech has won the last seven games against the Miners dating all the way back to 1963.

But after that, the schedule has a few interesting, and odd quirks.  Let’s take a closer look.

https://twitter.com/TexasTechFB/status/1052938269086928896

Two bye weeks

The 2019 schedule features a rarity for the Texas Tech football team, two scheduled bye weeks.  Tech will first be off on September 21st, a week after wrapping up non-conference play at Arizona.

That is a nice time to have an extra week to prepare for the start of Big 12 play at Oklahoma on September 28th.  Texas Tech has won only once in Norman (2011) and Gaylord Family Stadium is one of the most difficult venues for opposing teams in the nation so perhaps the extra week will provide Kingsbury and his team time to come up with a better game plan than they have in the last two trips to Norman when Tech has lost by a combined 58 points.

The second bye week comes on November 2nd in between road trips to Kansas and West Virginia. Having an off week prior to heading to West Virginia is especially advantageous.

The trip from Lubbock to Morgantown is the longest road trip in the Big 12.  Add to that the fact that teams can’t fly directly into Morgantown but have to fly into Pittsburgh and bus another 90 minutes into West Virginia.  Therefore, the extra rest prior to the most taxing road trip of the season is an added bonus.

A return to Waco

Beginning in 2019, the series with Baylor will return to campus as Texas Tech travels to Waco.  The two teams have not played on campus since Baylor’s 2008 trip to Lubbock as the series moved to the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex in 2009.

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As a result, Texas Tech is yet to play in Baylor’s new McLane Stadium, which opened in 2014.  A key reason that Texas Tech was in favor of moving this game to DFW was that the school felt it would be better not to have a home game on the weekend after Thanksgiving with the number of students that head home for the holiday.

Next year, Texas Tech hosts Kansas the Saturday before Thanksgiving before finishing the season at Texas on Black Friday, which could still mean a sparse crowd for the final home game as many students head home early for the holiday week.  A way to avoid the Thanksgiving weekend problem has been to play the final game of the season against Baylor in Arlington on years when Tech does not play at Texas (which hosts Tech on Thanksgiving weekend in odd-numbered years).

AD Kirby Hocutt has recently stated that he has told the Big 12 he prefers Texas Tech not play at home on Thanksgiving weekend if the Baylor game is moved back to campus.  It will be interesting to see if the Big 12 honors that request.

Plenty of time away from home

Another odd aspect of next year’s schedule is that Tech will play only two home games in a seven-game stretch in the middle of the season.  After the September 7th home game with UTEP, the Red Raiders have only two home games in the next two months until TCU comes to town on November 16th.

During that section of the schedule, Tech will travel to Arizona, Oklahoma, Baylor, Kansas and West Virginia while hosting Oklahoma State and Iowa State.  This may not impact the Red Raiders as much as some may fear because under Kliff Kingsbury, Tech has been better on the road.

Since 2013, Tech is 14-11 on the road and 17-16 at home.  What’s more, virtually all of Kingsbury’s biggest wins  (Arkansas 2015, Texas 2015 & 2017, TCU 2016 & 2018, Oklahoma State 2018) have come away from Jones Stadium.

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One other quirk to keep in mind is that with the Baylor game moving back to campus, on odd=numbered years, like 2019, Tech will now have five road Big 12 games and just four home games.  Of course, that will change in 2020 when Tech has five conference home games and seven home games overall with Arizona and Wyoming already scheduled to come to Lubbock.

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