2019 Texas Tech football home schedule could be worst ever
2003 brought in No. 1 but nothing else
Long before Pat Mahomes had to overcome the nation’s worst defense in 2015-16, Red Raider QB B.J. Symons had to carry his team on his back all season because of one of the most pathetic defenses we’ve ever seen in Lubbock. And he had to do it on one leg after suffering a torn ACL in his knee in the middle of the season.
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That year, Symons set an NCAA record for passing yards in a season with 5,883; a mark that still stands. But his excellence through the air was about all the excitement Tech fans got to see in person because outside of a season-ending visit from No. 1 OU, the home schedule was as interesting as a church hymnal.
The Red Raiders opened the year by hiking their legs on two regional fire hydrants, SMU and New Mexico. Then a Texas A&M team that would finish the year 4-8 came limping into Lubbock and had their nose rubbed in the dirt to the tune of 59-28.
Colorado, which finished 5-7 then brought their wet noodle of a team to Lubbock to take a 26-21 defeat. Three weeks later, the No.1 ranked Sooners played the windshield to the Red Raiders’ bug in a 56-25 laugher in the home finale at the Jones.
The two most memorable games from this season came in back-to-back road games. Tech lost to N.C. State and their QB Phillip Rivers in week-three before beating Eli Manning and Ole Miss 49-45 in Oxford in what was B.J. Symons’ signature performance and a game that has gone down as a classic in program history.
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But when the best home game on your schedule is a 31-point loss to the No.1 team in the nation, it is a home schedule that leaves something to be desired. Still, Tech fans would likely welcome the excitement of getting to see a top-5 team come to Lubbock in 2019 rather than a series of middling Big 12 teams that are destined to be also-rans on the national stage. Though the results would likely be no different than they were in 2003.