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Texas Tech football: Red Raiders will beat Kansas tonight if…

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TX - OCTOBER 20: Ta'Zhawn Henry #26 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders gets by Keith Loneker Jr. #47 of the Kansas Jayhawks during the second half of the game on October 20, 2018 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech defeated Kansas 48-16. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TX - OCTOBER 20: Ta'Zhawn Henry #26 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders gets by Keith Loneker Jr. #47 of the Kansas Jayhawks during the second half of the game on October 20, 2018 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech defeated Kansas 48-16. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
(Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

In order for the Texas Tech football team to beat the Kansas Jayhawks tonight in Lawrence, the following needs to happen.

Nothing rocks the college football world and sets the nation ablaze like a primetime game in Lawrence, Kansas featuring the Texas Tech football team as the villain.  Or not.

But though this game is annually the most uninteresting and least-hyped on the schedule, Red Raider fans know that their team is not in any position to take a single team for granted.  Thus, despite the fact that the Red Raiders’ trip to Lawrence tonight is certain to elicit as much excitement among the fans as a molecular biology midterm, what happens in the Sunflower State will have unquestionable ramifications for the Red Raiders.

The primary goal for Matt Wells’ first season is to simply get to a bowl game.  Now that we are past the half-way point of the season with Tech having only gotten half-way to that goal, it is hard to envision this team reaching six wins if it does not emerge from Lawrence a winner.

A loss would further cement the belief that this team is just not good enough to win on the road.  Therefore, winning at either West Virginia in two weeks or Texas on Thanksgiving weekend would seem rather unlikely.  But if a bowl appearance is to be in store, the Red Raiders are going to have to bring home at least one road win this year after dropping their first home game of the year last weekend.  If they can’t win at KU, where can they win other than the Hub City?

On the other hand, a win would give Tech a huge shot in the arm headed into next week’s bye.  Needing just two more wins over the final four games of the year, Tech would have to like its chances of reaching the postseason being as three of those games come against West Virginia, TCU, and Kansas State, all of which are among the worst teams in the Big 12.

Here’s hoping that we see a carbon copy of the last game between the Red Raiders and the Jayhawks in Lawrence.  That day, the Red Raiders jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter on their way to a 65-19 cakewalk.

Desmond Nisby had his best game in a short Red Raider career with 93 rushing yards and four touchdowns while Justin Stockton went off for 161 yards and a TD as Tech amassed 313 yards on the ground.   Against one of the worst rushing defenses in the nation, the Red Raiders will look to have that same level of dominance in the rushing game tonight.

The eyes of the nation will not be on Lawernce this evening.  Neither will the eyes of anyone in the Big 12…unless the Red Raiders stub their toe.

Should that happen, the next two weeks in Lubbock will be rather unpleasant (unless Chris Beard’s team is being discussed).  But Texas Tech is the more talented team in this game and there’s no reason to believe that a team coming off back-to-back losses, each frustrating for a different reason, will be anything but ready to play.

If they are and they can make the following come to fruition, they will be back on pace for the type of season that this program desperately needs in 2019.  In other words, Texas Tech will win if…

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