Texas Tech football: The defining victories of the 2010s

2015: Texas Tech 35, Arkansas 24

Apparently, the Texas Tech football team’s 2015 win at Arkansas in 2015 was personal for Kingsbury.  After the game, he took an uncharacteristically blunt shot at Razorback head coach Bret Bielema who had made some comments at a high school coaching clinic the previous summer that didn’t sit well with him.

"“[Bielema] stood up and said if you don’t throw to the fullback, we’ll kick your ass, and if you throw it 70 times a game, we’ll kick your ass,” Kingsbury said following Texas Tech’s 35-24 win, referring to Bielema’s comments at the convention. “[Bielema] just got his ass kicked twice in a row and probably next week by [Texas] A&M as well. “That did feel good.”"

Coming off a 2014 humbling at the hands of Bielema’s Razorbacks in which the hogs ran for 7 touchdowns, Tech seemed to have little chance of going into Fayetteville and returning the favor.  But the difference was that Pat Mahomes was at QB and the defense managed to stand up to the run.

Mahomes amassed 301 total yards and three touchdowns (two on the ground) while Jakeem Grant threw for a score on a wide receiver pass.  Meanwhile, the Red Raider defense forced two critical turnovers on a night when the Hogs managed 424 yards of offense.

Tied at 21 to begin the third quarter, Tech took a 28-21 edge on Mahomes’ second TD run of the game in the third quarter.  The Red Raiders then added a Justin Stockton TD run in the 4th quarter when leading just 28-24.  That would prove to be the final score of the game.

But it was Kingsbury who stole the show in the postgame press game conference.  The son of a high school football coach, he obviously took offense to what Bielema said in front of hundreds of Texas football coaches, the vast majority of whom ran the spread offense that Bielema was putting down.  For what it’s worth, Kingsbury was right…Arkansas did lose to Texas A&M the next week, 28-21 in OT.