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Texas Tech football: How notable coaches fared in second season

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TX - NOVEMBER 10: Head coach Kliff Kingsbury of the Texas Tech Red Raiders leads his team onto the field before the game against the Texas Longhorns on November 10, 2018 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas defeated Texas Tech 41-34. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TX - NOVEMBER 10: Head coach Kliff Kingsbury of the Texas Tech Red Raiders leads his team onto the field before the game against the Texas Longhorns on November 10, 2018 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas defeated Texas Tech 41-34. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /
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Head coach Tommy Tuberville of the Texas Tech Red Raiders  (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Head coach Tommy Tuberville of the Texas Tech Red Raiders  (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /

Tommy Tuberville’s second season ended a long run of postseason eligibility

Just like the rest of his tenure in Lubbock, the second season of Tomy Tuberbille’s time as head coach was terrible.  It was his only losing season but the fact that he had two winning campaigns in his three years doesn’t change the damage he did to Red Raider football in his brief time at the helm of the program.

After going 8-5 in his first season, Tuberville stumbled to a 5-7 record in 2011.  That put an end to the Big 12’s longest streak of bowl-eligible seasons at 18, which dated all the way back to 1992.

But that season got off to a very promising 5-2 start, which included a stunning road upset of No. 3 Oklahoma.  Unfortunatley, that unimaginable triumph would prove to be the final win of the season as injuries and a lack of depth (sound familiar?) resulted in a five-game losing streak to end the season.

The downward spiral began with a stunning home loss to Iowa State the week after beating the Sooners.  Being humiliated 41-7 by a 3-4 Iowa State team at Jones Stadium seemed to trash the team’s psyche and Tuberville and his assistants could not pull their team out of the tailspin.

Losses to Texas, Oklahoma State, Missouri, and Baylor concluded the season and prevented Tech from extending its streak of bowl appearances to 12.  The average margin of defeat in the final five games of the year was 30.8 points per game making one question whether that team gave up on Tuberville.  Of course, in that stretch Tech endured a 66-6 home loss to Oklahoma State, the worst loss in Jones Stadium history.

Going just 2-7 in Big 12 play, Tech’s only wins other than the upset of the Sooners came over Kansas, Texas State, New Mexico, and Nevada.  Thus, it is fair to wonder just how the Red Raiders managed to win in Norman that season.

That was also when Tech’s struggles to win at home began to first surface.  Tech was able to go just 2-4 at Jones Stadium and lost all four Big 12 games in the Hub City.  Not much has changed since as Tech is coming off a season when the Red Raiders were just 1-3 in conference games in 2019.  If that doesn’t improve this fall, year two of the Wells era might be just as poor of a year as year two of the Tuberville era.

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