Texas Tech football: The strangest endings in Red Raider history

TCU grabs tipped pass in the end zone to beat Tech in 2015

Not all deflected balls or weird plays go Tech’s way.  We learned that the hard way in 2015 when TCU came down with a deflected ball in the end zone to pull out a 55-52 win in Lubbock.

This was a chance for Kliff Kingsbury to right the ship against the Frogs after a humiliating loss that saw TCU score 82 points. the year prior.  The next time these teams met, TCU head coach Gary Patterson found life much more difficult than it was in Fort Worth the previous year.

In fact, the game came down to one play.  On 4th-and-goal from the 4, Trevoyne Boykin saw his pass knocked into the air where it looked like it would sail out of the back of the endzone.

However, RB Aaron Green came flying in from out of nowhere to snatch the ball away from a group of Tech defenders to put his team up 55-52.  That proved to be the most deflating singular moment of the Kingsbury era and could be considered the point when that coaching experiment started to truly go south because it robbed Kingsbury of a much-needed signature win over a top-5 team.

But what most fans don’t remember is just how close Tech came to pulling off its own miracle on the final play of the game.  Snapping the ball at the 50, Pat Mahomes completed a pass to DeAndre Washington for a 26-yard gain.  Washington then lateraled the ball to tackle LeRaven Clark (of all people) who lateraled to WR Devin Lauderdale who then lateraled to Jakeem Grant who was tackled at the TCU 10.

This was a time when the Jones Stadium magic failed the home team.  For years, we saw strange occurrences go Tech’s way at The Jones but this one didn’t and though we didn’t know it at the time, that wacky bounce proved to be the start of a run of futility at home the likes of which this program has rarely endured.