Will Texas Tech football ever recapture the magic of 11-1-2008?

Ten years ago today, the Texas Tech football program experienced its greatest moment by knocking off No. 1 Texas in one of the most legendary games in college football history. A decade later, Red Raider fans are still wondering if the program will ever recapture that magic.

Drive by the east parking lot of Jones Stadium today and you will likely see nothing out of the ordinary. Except for the fact that the lot sits next to a 60,000 seat stadium, it will look just like all the other parking lots in Lubbock.

But ten years ago, thousands of students turned that parking lot into a collection of tents and make-shift campsites known as Raiderville. That parking lot became the center of the college football world leading up to the November 1st, 2008 showdown between No. 7 Texas Tech and No. 1 Texas.

The stories connected with that week have become as synonymous with West Texas folklore as the chupacabra, the Marfa lights or Brushy Bill Roberts. But what has haunted Texas Tech football fans most in the last ten years is the fact that the magic of the 2008 UT game was more of an apparition than a sustainable reality.

11-1-2008 began with the filming of ESPN’s College Game Day in the engineering key. The show ended with Bob Knight proclaiming, “I deeply hope we beat their ass” and Lee Corso donning the Raider Red headgear while firing off the mascot’s shotguns sending the crowd of thousands into a frenzy.

Of course, the game lived up to the billing as Tech built a 19-0 lead thanks to a safety by defensive tackle Colby Whitlock and touchdowns by Baron Batch and Eric Morris. Texas would come back to take a 31-33 lead with just 1:29 to go setting up one of the most memorable drives in Big 12 history.

After a 38-yard kickoff return by Jamar Wall, Tech picked up three first downs on four plays to move to the Texas 28. With 17 seconds to play, Harrell tired to connect with Ed Britton but the pass went off Britton’s hands and appeared to be intercepted by UT safety Blake Gideon.

However, Gideon couldn’t secure the ball leaving Tech with time for one more play. We all know what happened next. Harrell hit Michael Crabtree for the game-winning score unleashing chaos the likes of which has rarely, if ever, been seen before or since in college football.

As the Red Raiders celebrated in the end zone, the Texas Tech students stormed the field but because the clock still had one second remaining, Tech was penalized 15 yards. The scene resembled something out of an end-of-days movie scene with students running in every direction while the north end zone goal posts were being lowered.

And in typical Big 12 fashion, the play went to video review before being confirmed. When the official announced that the play would stand, the students again stormed the field bringing about another 15-yard penalty.

With thousands of students standing around the field, Texas Tech would have to kick off from its 7-yard-line in one of the strangest looking kickoffs ever seen. The Longhorns’ attempt at pulling off a miracle kick return a-la Cal in 1982 vs. Stanford failed and the field was again swarmed with thousands of tortilla tossing Red Raiders.

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It was a night that no Red Raider fan will ever forget. But unfortunately, it was a night that many fear we may never see again in Lubbock.

In the decade since, Texas Tech football has failed to capitalize on the momentum of that game and that special season. The firing of Mike Leach, the awful decision to hire Tommy Tuberville and the Kliff Kingsbury experiment brought the Red Raiders back into the all-to-familiar abyss of mediocrity.

It is really quite sad to think about how far we are from 11-1-2008.

In 2008, so many people came to town for the UT game that national media members had to get hotel rooms in Amarillo, Midland or Abilene. Ten years later, the conversation around the program centers on how to get fans to even show up and how to get the ones that do to stay past halftime.

Instead of debating whether Texas Tech or Alabama should be ranked No. 1 in the next poll, we seem to be more concerned with whether we should sell beer in the stadium and whether or not we should let the students tailgate in the stadium parking lot rather than off campus in hopes that it will help fill the growing swatch of empty bleachers on the East side of Jones Stadium.

The big debate in 2008 was whether Harrell or Crabtree was more deserving of Heisman Trophy consideration. In 2018, the primary debate among the fan base concerns whether Kliff Kingsbury deserves another year as head coach.

The golden age of Texas Tech football continues to fade further into the West Texas sunset with each passing season. After being ranked in the final poll of every season but one (2006) from 2004-2009, Tech has not ended the season ranked in the past eight years.

Now we are left to wonder whether it is even possible to regain the magic that we experienced in Jones Stadium ten years ago. The landscape of college football has changed and the spread offense is now commonplace neutralizing the schematic advantage Tech had in the Leach years.

The structure of the Big 12’s round-robin schedule has put nine conference games on the schedule instead of eight making it far more challenging to have the type of season that will garner national recognition. What’s more, The Big 12 has not come close to being as highly-regarded as it was in 2008 when Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech all spent significant time in the top-10.

Meanwhile, a new generation of Red Raiders have grown up knowing nothing but mediocrity and irrelevance when it comes to Texas Tech football causing the passion of the late 2000’s to fade into apathy.

Each time I watch the highlights of the 2008 UT game, I feel many of the same emotions I did that night in the stands. I’m still nervous during the final drive, astonished at Crabtree’s brash decision to stay in bounds and euphoric as I watched the post-game chaos.

When The Matador Song plays, I can remember being in that moment, sining at the top of my lungs like I’ve never sung before in what was one of the most religious experiences of my life and I find myself singing along again, ten years later.

However, I also find myself having to fight back my emotions. The knot in my throat that appears every time I watch the end of that game is born of pride in my university and that has not faded in the years since.

But now, I also realized that the knot may also be born of sadness for what has been lost. Like an idyllic childhood summer, 11-1-2008 drifts further away each year. Still, I find myself looking towards the horizon hoping that the magic might eventually return.