Texas Tech football: 3 Reasons Kingsbury will not be fired
Kingsbury will get the benefit of the doubt for factors beyond his control
Those in favor of Kingsbury’s return next year are quick to point out the awful luck he has had this year with injuries, especially at the quarterback position. He has had to start three different quarterbacks which is a continuation of the awful run of misfortunate he has had since taking over the job.
In fact, three of the Red Raiders five losses have come in games where Kingsbury has seen his starting QB leave the game in the first half.
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Against Ole Miss, McLane Carter played just three series before being lost to a high ankle sprain that has kept him out of action for most of the season. Against both West Virginia and Oklahoma, Alan Bowman suffered a collapsed lung that also kept him out of the loss to Texas.
Though Tech was trailing West Virginia by three scores when Bowman left that game, it was leading OU 31-28 at halftime with Bowman running the offense. Most believe that Texas Tech would have pulled off the upset of the Sooners had Bowman (who was 21-26 for 227 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions) been able to finish the game.
Along those same lines, Texas Tech fans by and large believe that the team would have beaten the Longhorns had Bowman been able to play. The biggest factor in that game was the three turnovers by Duffey. If Bowman, who is better at taking care of the football, would have played, Tech would have been too much for the Horns to handle.
So if Kirby Hocutt takes the above arguments under consideration and he gives Kingsbury the benefit of the doubt, he could potentially see that this team was on the brink of two more wins with both coming against ranked teams.
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As we said earlier, Hocutt is looking for reasons to keep Kingsbury. In each of the past two seasons, he has found ways to justify keeping the current coaching staff in place despite strong public sentiment to the contrary. Do not be surprised if he points to the quarterback injuries and near misses of 2018 as another reason to stay with Kliff Kingsbury.