Texas Tech football: Baylor series marked by long streaks

The Texas Tech football team is set to face Baylor tomorrow in Arlington, Texas to resume a series that is as close as it gets and has been marked by long winning streaks for each program.

There is no opponent more familiar to the Texas Tech football program than the Baylor Bears. Tech has played the Bears 76 times, more than any other opponent, holding a 38-37-1 edge. Texas Tech has won the last two meetings and if history is any indication, it could be in for a few more wins over the Bears because long winning streaks by both schools have defined this series.

The first times the schools met was in 1929, a 34-0 Baylor win in Waco. The teams would split the first six games in the series from 1929-1942 and play to a tie 7-7 in 1945.

But after a Tech win in 1946, Baylor put together the first lengthy streak in the series. Between 1947 and 1960, the Bears would string together 11-consecutive wins while also claiming victory from 1962-64 to take 14 of 15 overall.

However, the tide turned back towards the Red Raiders in 1965 when Tech won its first of five-straight on its way to nine of ten. The only Tech loss in that ten-year run came in 1974, 17-10 in Waco. The most important game from that span came in 1976 when QB Rodney Allison led the Red Raiders to a 24-21 win in Lubbock to give Tech a share of the Southwest Conference championship for the first time.

But the 1980’s were dominated by the Bears. While Grant Teaft had turned Baylor into a perennial top-25 team, Tech would have four different head coaches from 1980-1986. The result was a run of dominance by Baylor that saw them win ten of twelve games from 1979-1990.

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However, after Teaft’s retirement in 1992, Baylor went through virtually the same struggle. Over the next decade, the Bears would have four different head coaches of their own and as a result, their program became one of the worst in the nation.

Texas Tech would capitalize by winning 15-consecutive games in the series from 1996-2010. In fact, former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach never lost to Baylor beating them every year of his tenure in Lubbock from 2000-2009 as the Bears became the laughing-stock of the Big 12 and Texas Tech vaulted to national prominence.

But as Texas Tech transitioned from Leach to Tommy Tuberville, Baylor was on the up-tick under Art Briles. And in 2011, the Bears broke their losing streak in a 66-42 win despite seeing Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III leave the game with an injury after attempting only 11 passes.

Baylor would win the next four games in the series until the scandal that cost Briles his job sent the Bears into a free fall. During that five-game streak, Baylor topped the 50-point mark every game but once. In 2014, No. 7 Baylor held off a 4-win Texas Tech team 48-46 in a game that saw true freshman QB Pat Mahomes announce his arrival to the college football world.

Mahomes would set a Big 12 freshman record with 593 passing yards and six touchdowns in just his fourth career start. That day, three Red Raiders (Jakeem Grant, DeAndre Washington and Bradley Marquez) topped 100-yards receiving but a last-minute two-point attempt was stymied to help Baylor escape.

Now, the series that has been dictated by coaching turmoil for the better part of four decades will resume with the Red Raiders potentially facing another coaching change.

Many believe that Kliff Kingsbury must win this week to have any hope of saving his job and even if he manages to get Tech to its sixth win, there is a realistic possibility that he could be relieved of his duties. Meanwhile, Matt Rhule is in his second season in Waco and has made significant progress taking Baylor to the verge of bowl eligibility with five wins just one year after going 1-11.

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This could be one of the most memorable games in the series regardless of the final score. It could be a game that Texas Tech fans point to as the day that the Kingsbury experiment officially came to an end or the day that Kingsbury once again saved his job with a win in game 12 as many believe he has done in each of the past two seasons. Either way, the final meeting in Arlington for the foreseeable future should be full of intrigue.

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