Texas Tech football: Team records that may never be broken

39 punts in a game

These days, most Big 12 football fans become bored if a game doesn’t produce a touchdown within the first two drives after we start watching.  Imagine how we would have felt had we seen the 1939 game between Texas Tech and Centenary.

Playing in Shreveport, LA during a rainstorm that brought over two inches of moisture to the area, the two teams played to a 0-0 tie in a game that saw a combined 77 punts.  That included a team and NCAA record 39 by the Red Raiders.

Why so many punts?  In a word…strategy.

"“The idea was simple,” writes Daniel Wilco of NCAA.com. “With traditional offense ineffective at best, and dangerous at worst (due to injuries and turnovers, of which there were many), the best option for gaining field position was to boot the ball downfield and hope the returner either muffs the punt or fumbles the ball on the return. Regardless of the absent proof of efficacy, both teams went all in on the strategy, punting a combined total of 77 times, with 67 coming on first down. Those are not typos. During one stretch in the second half, there were 22 punts in a row.”"

This past season, Tech’s freshman punter Austin McNamara was called upon for 59 total punts, an average of 4.9 per game.  Had he been asked to punt 39 times per game, he would have had 468 punts for the season and his leg would have fallen off.

That day, Tech managed to finish the game with -1 yards of total offense while Centenary dominated with 30 yards.  The only two scoring opportunities were two missed field goals as the teams sloshed their way to one of the strangest outcomes in football history. Needless to say, we won’t be seeing that record broken…ever…thank goodness.