Texas Tech football: Predictions for the Red Raiders in 2019
Now that the Texas Tech football season has officially arrived, here are a few predictions about what might happen in 2019.
It is finally time for the 2019 Texas Tech football season to begin. After nine months of consternation and speculation over the man that will be wearing the headset, we finally get to experience some real game action.
This will be season 94 of Texas Tech football. Overall, the program has gone 556-450-32 while bringing home eleven conference titles.
Interestingly, this is also the 150th anniversary of the birth of college football. And despite the fact that Tech did not start playing the sport until 54 years after Princeton and Rutgers faced off in the first college game, Tech still ranks No. 72 in the nation in terms of total wins.
To put that in perspective, Tech has four more all-time wins than Mississippi State which began playing football in 1895, 17 more than Washington State which began play in 1894, 22 than Northwestern which began playing football in 1882, and 35 more than Iowa State which has been playing since 1892.
What’s more, Tech has spent 58 years playing in either the Southwest Conference or the Big 12, two of the most legendary football conferences the game has ever featured. Often playing against teams with greater resources, larger budgets, more tradition, and other advantages, the Red Raiders have been fighting above their weight class for the majority of their history.
That’s why the program’s .556 winning percentage is not to be taken for granted. That percentage puts the Red Raiders at No. 57 in the nation and ahead of programs such as Ole Miss, Missouri, TCU, Iowa, and Purdue.
Texas Tech also finds itself in the top half of the teams in the country in regards to weeks spent in the A.P. poll. The 141 weeks as a ranked team are 60th overall but ahead of only Kansas and Iowa State as far as Big 12 teams go.
Unfortunately, national rankings have become somewhat of a rarity in the last few years. Last season, the Red Raiders were only in the poll for one week checking in at No. 25 after beating Oklahoma State to move to 4-1 on the season.
What’s more, Tech has been ranked for multiple weeks in a season just twice since 2010 (2012 and 2013). And from early November of 2013 to October of 2017, Tech did not crack the poll once.
But now, a new sense of optimism is beginning to take root in West Texas. Having seen the Red Raider basketball, baseball, and track teams reach elite heights, Red Raider fans now believe that the football team can join those programs and become at least a regular member of the top-25 under Matt Wells.
Whether or not Tech shows up in the polls in 2019 is fair to wonder. They start the season without even sniffing a national ranking meaning that to get into the top-25 in the first half of the year, they will likely have to have a surprising start.
Most expect a 3-0 non-conference record, which will be a must if Tech wants to be ranked. However, a trip to Oklahoma in the fourth game of the season means that it will be incredibly for Wells’ team to start 4-0. But if Tech can play well in Norman, there’s a chance that they could remain in the hunt for a spot in the polls.
With a tough stretch against Oklahoma State, Baylor, and Iowa State in games 5-7, there will be a chance for the Red Raiders to earn national respect and set itself up for a strong finish to the year. It doesn’t seem to make sense on paper but I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Tech will be in the polls for at lest two weeks this season.
After all, if you can’t be optimistic on opening day, when can you be? So with that said, let’s take a look at a few other predictions for the 2019 Texas Tech football season.