Texas Tech football: Red Raiders have one last opportunity to reclaim the Jones

The Texas Tech football team desperately needs a marquee home win to help reinvigorate the home fanbase.   And tonight’s game against Texas may be their last opportunity to do so until 2020.

When your head coach is on the proverbial hot seat, it feels like every game is potentially the most important in recent memory.  Such has been the case for the Texas Tech football team in 2018 as Kliff Kingsbury continues coaching for his job.

But while Kingsbury’s fate will not be solely determined based on what happens tonight, the importance of beating Texas at Jones Stadium must not be understated.  The most glaring flaw on Kingsbury’s resume has been his inability to win games in Lubbock, which was once the most feared destination in the Big 12.

Kingsbury is just 18-17 overall at Jones Stadium since 2013.  But considering that he began 4-0 at home in his first season, he has a losing home record over the past five-and-a-half years.

What’s more, in Big 12 games, Kingsbury has been even worse.  Going just 7-16 in home conference games, Kingsbury has been at the helm as the Jones Stadium mystique has faded into folklore giving way to large swaths of empty bleachers and a decreasing fan engagement.

It has been almost three calendar years since Texas Tech has beat a Big 12 team other than Kansas at Jones Stadium.  A November 14, 2015 win over Kansas State was the last team any Big 12 team besides the conference doormat left Lubbock in defeat.

During that time, opponents have lost the fear of playing at the Jones.

"“If that environment is going to make me cringe up then I’ve got problems,”  Texas defensive end Charles Omenihu said earlier this week. “… It’s going to be a night game, cool. It’s a big game, yeah. It’s another game we have to win. If you’re too worried about tortillas and environment and whatever the hell else they’re going to be doing, then you’re wasting your time.”"

What was once considered the college football version of the Bermuda Triangle has now become just another road trip for ranked teams.  Tech has not beaten a ranked team in Lubbock since beating No. 24 TCU in 2013.

The best one can say about Tech’s recent home performances is that they have put a scare in ranked teams.  They have lost three of their last four  home games against ranked teams by eight points or fewer including last week’s 51-46 loss to OU in front of a near-capacity crowd.

Tonight, the Red Raiders’ game with Texas is officially a sell out, the first in years.  It is an opportunity for Tech to earn bowl eligibility by getting to six wins, a virtual must for Kingsbury if he is to retain his job.

But more importantly, it is the final opportunity this team will have to earn a signature home win until the 2020 season.  Tech’s home schedule next year features no marquee teams such as Oklahoma and Texas.

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The two most interesting home games next year will be TCU and Oklahoma state and given the struggles of both programs this year, it is highly possible that neither will be ranked when they come to town in 2019.  The best team to play at Jones Stadium next year will be Iowa State and despite the fact that the Cyclones are a program on the rise, they certainly do not carry much weight with the average fan like Texas or OU.

Texas Tech desperately needs to beat Texas tonight for reasons that are bigger than bowl eligibility and conference standings.  Once the most popular man in Lubbock, Kliff Kingsbury needs to find a way to endear himself to a fan base that has become disenchanted by week after week of having to slink out of Jones Stadium disappointed or angry.

The current student body has never experienced a good old fashioned field storming like we saw ten years ago when the Red Raiders knocked off No. 1 Texas in one of the greatest games in college football history.

The moment that my Red Raider football obsession was born came in my freshman year in 1999 when Tech beat No. 5 Texas A&M and we stormed the field and brought down the goal posts.  Standing on the field with thousands of my fellow students signing the Matador Song and celebrating a huge win over a hated rival was one of the best experiences of my collegiate years. But that is something the current generation of students has missed out on.

Is it any wonder that student engagement with the football program is at its lowest since the end of the Spike Dykes era?  If Kliff Kingsbury and the Texas Tech football program is going to win back the students and turn casual fans into dedicated fans, they must give the home faithful wins worth celebrating.

But with Montana State, UTEP, KSU, Iowa State, TCU and Oklahoma State on next year’s schedule, the may not be an opportunity for a win that creates a buzz in Lubbock for quite some time.  That’s why tonight’s game against Texas may be as important as any in the Kingsbury era, even if his job is not necessarily on the line.