Wreck'Em Red
Fansided

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

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - OCTOBER 19: Jones AT&T Stadium is pictured before the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Iowa State Cyclones on October 19, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - OCTOBER 19: Jones AT&T Stadium is pictured before the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Iowa State Cyclones on October 19, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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The Texas Tech Red Raiders are led onto the field by the Masked Rider (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
The Texas Tech Red Raiders are led onto the field by the Masked Rider (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /

4-straight seasons without a winning record at home

During the 2000s, Jones Stadium was one of the toughest places in the nation for opposing teams to visit.  But after going just 3-3 at home in 2019 (1-3 in Big 12 play), the Red Raiders have now gone four years since putting together a winning home record.

In each of the last two seasons, as well as in 2016, Tech was .500 in Lubbock while in 2017, the home mark was just 2-4.  That’s not going to cut it.

Even more troubling is the fact that the Red Raiders have not had more than two home wins over Big 12 teams since 2015 (the last time Tech had a winning home record) and the program has not had a winning home record in conference play since 2009.  That needs to change in 2020 with seven home games (five of them in the conference) on the schedule.

Because of this dreadful run of futility in Lubbock, the fan base has started to view going to Texas Tech football games as more of a chore than a privilege.  The student engagement is as low as it has been since the end of the Spike Dykes era and now even night games struggle to draw more than 40,000 fans.

Of course, the problem with attendance is also tied to changing cultural preferences among sports fans.  But if Texas Tech was winning home games on the regular, the attendance issues might mean the difference between 50 or 60,000 fans and the home atmosphere would still be one that gives the Red Raiders an edge.

2020 will be a fantastic opportunity for the Red Raiders to win back the home fans with high-interest teams like OU, Texas, Baylor, West Virginia, and Arizona all coming to Lubbock.  Last season, as my wife and I walked back to the car after the Red Raiders dropped the home finale to Kansas State 30-27, we discussed how tired we have become of leaving Jones Stadium feeling the way we did that night.

Here’s hoping that we don’t have to do the college football version of the walk of shame as often in 2020.  Just like the fans, this program won’t be able to withstand that agony for much longer.

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