Texas Tech football: Why the Red Raiders were able to beat West Virginia
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Saturday, the Texas Tech football team was able to come up with a much-needed win at West Virginia and here’s how.
The old sports axiom tells us that winning cures all. But while beating a 3-win West Virginia team certainly doesn’t cure everything that is plaguing the Texas Tech football program, Saturday’s 38-17 win certainly was a small step in the right direction.
There are still miles and miles to go in the rebuild of Red Raider football. When a win over a team as bad as West Virginia makes us feel like our team has brought home a trophy, it speaks volumes about where you are as a program.
But on a micro-level, this win was one of the best of the year for the 2019 Red Raiders. Of course, that’s not saying much.
Tech’s win in Morgantown was just the second of the season over a Power 5 team and while it wasn’t over as impressive of an opponent as Oklahoma State, it was far better than the first two wins of the season over Montana State and UTEP.
"“Proud of our guys, the effort that they continue to play with and practice with,” Wells said. “And hopefully this will be a win that springboards us for the way we practice next week and the way we think about things.”"
To suggest that this win provides his team some momentum heading forward is a rather telling statement from the head coach. It’s not that anyone who had been watching Red Raider football over the last month would have thought otherwise, but a pseudo acknowledgment from Wells about how much his team needed something positive to build off of is telling.
While life in the Big 12 has not been kind to the Red Raiders this year and we can fault this team for quite a bit, what we can’t accuse them of is throwing in the towel. That’s why it was nice to see their hard work finally result in a positive outcome.
Now, this team has something remaining that’s worth fighting for. With three games to play, two at home, Tech is still in the hunt for a bowl bid and that would be a huge boost for the program in year-one of the Wells era.
"“Our season’s on the line, and that’s what we’re fighting for,” cornerback Damarcus Fields said. “We’re either going to fight, or we’re going to lay down. I’m here to fight. We’re here to fight.”"
Don’t underestimate the importance of this team’s fight. The first year of a new coaching staff is all about developing a winning culture and if that translates to wins right off the bat, consider it a bonus.
Perception might be different in places like Norman, Tuscaloosa, or Baton Rouge but no one expected a program at the level of Texas Tech to do any better than fight for a bowl bid in 2019.
Programs learn quite a bit about themselves in the first year of a new regime. What they learn isn’t always evident to the fan base and unfortunately, the lessons might not yield results for a year or two.
But know that the struggle is part of the process. It’s a necessary forging of any successful program, be that in the sports world or other realms of society
The Texas Tech football team was humiliated in Lawrence. Losing to Kansas, which has been the laughingstock of the sport for the better part of a decade, could have killed this team’s desire to fight.
Already this year, we’ve ween other programs around the country (Houston and Arkansas for starters) give up when the season didn’t unfold as planned. To his credit, Matt Wells has kept his team from being in that boat.
After losing its starting QB in Arizona, being screwed out of a win in Waco, and being humbled in Lawrence, this team has remained motivated and has played hard. That has to make the victory in Morgantown on Saturday all the more satisfying. So let’s join in the good vibes and take a look at why Texas Tech was able to take down the Mountaineers.