Texas Tech football classics: Red Raiders hold off Nebraska in 2008

A dominant defense isn’t required for a team to be good in the Big 12

Sometimes we tend to look back on the 2008 season with a big of euphoric recall.  That’s a state of being in which humans often think about bygone days more favorably than perhaps we should.

When I think about 2008, I often convince myself that the Red Raider defense was one of the best in the Big 12 that year and that’s why Tech was so good.  But in reality, that defense was just mediocre by Big 12 standards and was far from even being a top-half of the country unit.  That was evident in watching this game as the Huskers dominated play when they had the ball despite fielding a very pedestrian offense.

The takeaway is that Tech doesn’t need a dominant defense to be competitive at the top of the Big 12.  That’s good news for the rebuilding efforts of Matt Wells and the current staff.

According to TeamRankings.com, the 2008 Red Raider defense was just 82nd in the nation at 395 yards per game.   In terms of scoring defense, the were 89th by allowing 32.2 points per contest.

Against the run, Tech was 75th (155 yards allowed per game) and against the pass Tech was 93rd (240 yards per game).   The key though was that the 2008 defense was opportunistic.

Averaging 2.3 takeaways per game, the Red Raiders were 20th in the country. Of course, the only turnover by either team in the Nebraska game loomed rather large.

Another area where Tech was good that year was in getting to the QB.  Also ranking 20th nationally in that statistic, they averaged 2.4 per game.

The lesson is that Big 12 teams aren’t going to field dominant defenses.  There’s just too many elite offenses in this league.  But if teams can harass the QB and force turnovers, they will be able to separate from the rest of their conference brethren.