2019 Texas Tech football home schedule could be worst ever
A closer look at the Texas Tech football schedule shows that the 2019 home slate is arguably the must unappealing in the modern era of the program.
We have come to the end of June meaning that the Texas Tech football season is just 62 days away. However, there seems to be less anticipation for this season than any in recent memory.
The reasons for that are numerous. First of all, the majority of the fan base does not know what to expect from new head coach Matt Wells and the casual fans knows absolutely nothing about their new head coach.
Unlike in 2013 when favorite sone Kliff Kingsbury debuted or in 2010 when long-time SEC head coach Tommy Tuberville replaced Mike Leach, there is virtually no anticipation for the debut of a coach that 99% of Texas Tech fans did not know the name of until late last November.
What’s more, we are still coming of the recent highs of the basketball team’s run to the national title game and baseball team’s top-4 national finish. Most of all, there is the fact that Texas Tech football simply has not been worth being excited about in a decade as Tech is just 56-57 in the last nine seasons collectively.
But another huge reason that fans are not clambering for Red Raider football right now is that this year’s home schedule could easily be the least exciting in the modern era of the program. That’s not hyperbole.
Right now, no team set to visit Lubbock this year is expected to start the year in the top 15 of the polls. Currently, none are even in the top-25 of the CBS Sports Power Rankings.
Iowa State is the highest-ranked at No. 27 while Oklahoma State comes in at No. 45, TCU at No. 60, Kansas State at No. 76 and UTEP all the way down at No. 129, which is last in the nation. The other opponent set to come to Jones Stadium this year is FCS weakling Montana State with might not be atop the District 5-5A rankings if it played in Texas.
On one hand, it might be beneficial for the Red Raiders to play a number of winnable games at home this fall. That’s because this program desperately needs to win back the home fan base by figuring out a way to beat a Big 12 team other than Kansas in Lubbock, which hasn’t happened since 2015.
But this home schedule lacks any marquee team with Tech having to face the two top Big 12 programs, OU and Texas, on the road. What’s more, the two visitors that most resemble hated rivals, TCU and OK State, are expected to field teams far below the standard that both programs have come to expect in the last decade.
The Baylor game could have brought some juice to the schedule as the teams meet again on campus for the first time in a decade. But Tech fans will have to wait another year to jeer in person the Big 12’s most disgraced program.
Unfortunately, Tech’s Big 12 mandated non-conference game against a Power 5 team will take place in Tucson, Arizona against Kevin Sumlin’s Arizona Wildcats. That means that this will be the second-straight season that Tech has played its Power 5 non-con game away from Lubbock after taking on Ole Miss in Houston last year.
As odd as it may seem, Iowa State is potentially the most intriguing team set to come to Lubbock this fall. The Cyclones finished the year 8-5 in 2018, good for third in the Big 12 and look to be a dark horse candidate to make the conference title game in 2019 thanks to an elite defense and sophomore QB Brock Purdy.
But hating Iowa State is about as tough as hating Mr. Rogers. Certainly, Tech fans are tired of losing to the Cyclones after having dropped three straight in the series but that is not enough to bring the type of energy to Lubbock that showdowns with Texas or Oklahoma typically do.
This is where some of the defectors from the Big 12 are missed. Back when Texas A&M was in the conference, Tech was able to host either the Aggies or the Longhorns every year guaranteeing at one hate-filled weekend each fall on the South Plains.
Likewise, seeing Nebraska come to town was always special, even as the Huskers fell from the ranks of the game’s elite in the 2000’s. Replacing programs like that with TCU or West Virginia is simply not going to move the needle as much for Red Raider fans.
That’s why this year’s schedule is the most unexciting in program history. A top-heavy Big 12 featuring two potentially elite teams and eight mediocre ones is not doing the Red Raiders any favors this time around. But this is not the first time Tech’s home slate has been rather pedestrian. Here are some other years that the Red Raiders have had a weak set of games at Jones Stadium.