A home-heavy schedule should be an advantage
Up until the 2000s, the college football regular-season schedule was just eleven games meaning that teams would either have five or six home games depending on the season. Interestingly, in 2020, Tech will have an unbalanced conference schedule for the second time since the league went to a round-robin format in 2011 and with five Big 12 games in Lubbock, that should be an advantage.
Now that the Baylor game has gone back to campus with last year’s gut-punch in Waco the first time in a decade that the teams had not played in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, Tech will alternate between four and five league games at Jones Stadium for the foreseeable future. And in the even-numbered years when Tech has five, the Red Raiders need to take advantage.
Of course, we are all aware of the program’s recent struggles when it comes to beating Big 12 teams in the Hub City. After going just 1-3 last year, Tech is now a mere 3-13 at home in conference play since 2016.
But this year, the toughest tests on the schedule will all come at home and that’s where any team would prefer to face the likes of Oklahoma, Texas, and Baylor, all of which come to Lubbock in 2020. Also, this season’s lone out of conference game against a Power 5 team, Arizona, will also be played at home meaning that Tech will have seven home games (including the week-two blood-letting of FCS sacrificial lamb Alabama State). Therefore, it is imperative that Wells’ and his team capitalize on that opportunity.
In 1986, Tech went 5-1 at home and in 1991 a 3-1 home record in conference play propelled the program to a winning season and a bowl game. Meanwhile, in 2015, Tech went 4-2 at The Jones and won two Big 12 games at home, which hasn’t happened since. Thus, if the home-field advantage that once defined this program can be regained in 2020, there’s a chance that Tech could be one of the surprise teams in the country.