Texas Tech football: How 10 men contributed to decline of Red Raider football
These ten men have each had a hand in the Texas Tech football program’s decline from top10-program to a national afterthought in the span of just a decade.
When recently talking to a friend who grew up in New York and has lived in Texas for less than a decade, the subject of Texas Tech football came up. My friend, a huge sports fan with no affiliation to any school west of the Mississippi, looked at me and said, “Man, what the hell happened to you guys? It doesn’t seem like that long ago when you were the hottest program in the country.” Since then, I’ve been wrestling with that very question.
Ten years ago, Barack Obama was in his first year in the Oval Office, Michael Jackson was in the final weeks of his life, the iPhone 3GS became the first phone capable of recording video and Texas Tech football fans were reveling in the afterglow of the most successful season in program history while looking forward to the future like never before. Less than six months later, that all would come crashing down around us and unfortunately, the program has yet to fully recover.
Just like Chris Beard and the basketball team captured the hearts of the Red Raider fan base and became the toast of the South Plains (if not the nation) this spring, in 2009 it was Mike Leach and the Texas Tech football program that was the pride of Lubbock and the hottest up and coming program in the country. And fans back then were as excited for the 2009 football season as we are this summer for the next season of Red Raider hoops.
Unfortunately, egos, terrible decisions and a lack of foresight by a number of people have rendered the most important program at Texas Tech a relative afterthought not only nationally but also in the state of Texas and on its own campus.
From 2000-2009, Tech went 85-48 with ten bowl appearances and six bowl wins while never having a losing season. In the decade since, the Red Raiders are just 56-57 with five losing seasons and a mere four bowl appearances, including three-straight since 2016.
Of course, the blame does not fall upon just one person or even a few people. Rather, there has been a long line of men who have contributed to the current state of Red Raider football. Let’s take a look at ten men who have had a hand in leading the Red Raiders to where they currently are; closer to Kansas than contention.