Texas Tech football: Unpleasant streaks that need to end in 2020

Quarterback Jett Duffey #7 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)

4-straight losing seasons

Each of the previous nine streaks is a contributor to the only streak that truly matters, Tech’s four-year run of losing seasons.

The last time the Red Raiders finished with a winning record was in 2015 when Mahomes and DeAndre Washington carried their team to a 7-5 regular season and a loss to LSU in the Texas Bowl. That needs to change in 2020 or else Matt Wells could be on the hot seat as early as 2021.

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Now, if Wells puts together a 6-6 regular season and loses a bowl game, as his predecessor did in 2017, he likely will be praised by his athletic director Kirby Hocutt as well as the reasonable section of the fanbase. But if he fails to at least get to six wins, the heat will be on in his third year.

But a winning season in 2020 is just as important because Wells doesn’t need to just keep his seat comfortable, he needs to start generating some momentum with the fans. And because of the success of Chris Beard’s basketball program and Tim Tadlock’s baseball program, Red Raider fans are now bored with mediocrity, which for most of the football program’s existence has been the baseline.

We can give Wells a pass for a tough 4-8 season in his first campaign. Transition years almost never lead to overwhelming success (with 2013 being a massive exception).

But now, every aspect of Texas Tech football has Matt Wells’ fingerprints on it. There are no more excuses. Kliff Kingsbury’s ghost is now gone from the football building and everything that is in place is under the authority of Wells.

What worries some fans, myself included, is the fact that Wells has only one winning season since 2015, a 10-2 record in 2018 that landed him the job in Lubbock. Outside of that, he’s gone just 19-31 (though twice he got to bowl games only to lose to give his team a record below .500 in both 2015 and 2017).

Both the head coach and his Texas Tech football program should be desperate for a winning record in 2020. That’s the only streak that truly needs to be put to bed but if many of the previous streaks on this lost aren’t broken, this final one is likely to stay alive.