Texas Tech football: Recent plays that were gut-punches to Red Raider fans

Clayton Hatfield’s missed 31-yard FG against Kansas State in 2017

Though we often overlook the third aspect of the game, special teams plays proved to be huge during Kingsbury’s tenure.  That was never more true than in 2017 when a missed chip-shot FG cost the Red Raiders a Big 12 win.

Leading Kansas State 35-27 with just 3:40 to play in 2017, the Red Raiders needed junior kicker Clayton Hatfield to hit just a 31-yard field goal to put the game out of reach.  But Hatfield shanked the kick giving the Wildcats new life.  Ultimately, KSU would tie the game on the ensuing possession and win it in overtime 42-35.

The loss was the 4th-straight for the Red Raiders after a 4-1 start.  What’s more, it was Tech’s third home loss in-a-row on their way to going 1-3 vs conference foes at Jones Stadium that season.

Kingsbury’s biggest shortcoming was his inability to beat Big 12 teams at home.  Outside of Kansas, Tech has not beaten a Big 12 team in Lubbock since beating KSU in the regular season finale in 2015.  Hatfield’s miss helped push Tech to its seventh-straight loss at home to a Big 12 opponent that did not have a Jayhawk on its helmet.

Tech was done in two seasons ago by its struggles in the kicking game.  In the offseason, Hatfield (arguably the best kicker in program history) was struck by a hip injury that cost him six games.

When he returned, he was still not back to 100% and he went 6-10 for the year.  In every other season of his career, he hit at least 87.5% of his FG tries.

In Hatfield’s absence, three other kickers went a combined 6-13 with several misses coming from comically short-range.  For the season, Tech’s kickers combined to hit just 52% of their attempts.

This was one of the most deflating losses of Kingsbury’s tenure as a game that was all-but sown up, somehow slipped away to a team that was just 4-4 on the season.  What’s more, this game proved to be critical in the big puncture because it helped send Tech to a 6-7 season record, part of a three-year run of losing seasons to end the Kingsbury era.

Had Tech managed to just go 7-6 in 2017,  there’s reason to believe that AD Kirby Hocutt might have given Kingsbury the benefit of the doubt in 2018 given all the QB injuries and allowed him another shot at turning things around this fall.  But because of Hatfield’s shank, Tech somehow managed to give away a game that never should have been in doubt in the final minutes.  This game was the difference between a winning record and a losing record in a crucial season  for Kingsbury and it turned on a missed FG that high school kickers make with regularity.