Texas Tech football: The path to a bowl game in 2019
Pull off a huge upset
There once was a time when ranked teams feared the Red Raiders. That time seems to have passed. But if the Red Raiders can stun either Oklahoma or Texas on the road, they will take a massive step towards bowl eligibility as well as make a huge statement on the national scene.
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As two of only three teams on the 2019 schedule to be ranked to begin the season, the top two Big 12 teams will be the only opportunities for Wells and his team to pull off a stunning upset that will alter the landscape of the sport.
Tech heads to OU to open conference play. Welcome to the Big 12 Coach Wells.
Tech has won in Norman only twice (1996, 2011) and has not beaten the Sooners since an unranked Tech team went to OU and stunned the No. 3 team in the nation 41-38 eight years ago. Interestingly, that huge upset did not help the Raiders get to the postseason as they lost the final five games of the season after a 5-2 start.
Meanwhile, the Red Raiders have had much greater luck in Austin lately. In both 2015 and 2017, the Red Raiders stunned the Longhorns at Royal Memorial Stadium to reach bowl eligibility in the final game of the regular season. Again in 2019, Tech will wrap up the regular season by visiting the Horns but given how loaded Texas appears to be this year, it would be wise for Wells to have wrapped up a postseason birth prior to that trip.
Unfortunately, huge upsets have become rare for the Red Raiders in the last decade. The only top-10 team Tech has taken down since 2008 other than OU in 2011 was No. 4 West Virginia in 2012. In that game, the Red Raiders ran circles around the Mountaineers in Lubbock in a 49-14 laugher.
Next. Players that helped themselves in fall camp. dark
This year, a top-10 upset is going to have to come on the road. But if Wells can figure out how to get his team to channel the ghosts of Red Raider past and pull off a classic Tech upset, he will have taken a huge step towards accomplishing his ultimate goal in his first season.