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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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JaMycal Hasty #6 of the Baylor Bears dives into the end zone past Douglas Coleman III #3 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)
JaMycal Hasty #6 of the Baylor Bears dives into the end zone past Douglas Coleman III #3 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images) /

10-consecutive losing Big 12 seasons

The last time the Texas Tech football program had a winning Big 12 record, Barack Obama was in his first year as President and Taylor Potts was in his first year as the program’s starting QB.  The year was 2009 and it was the final year of the Mike Leach era.

Since then, Tech has failed to post even one winning record in conference play.  What’s more, 2012, 2013, and 2015 are the only years in that time when the Red Raiders have come within a game of accomplishing that goal by winning four conference games.

By contrast, in the 2000s, the only season in which Leach posted a losing conference record was in 2000, his first year on the job.

Tech has gone just 30-59 against its Big 12 rivals since the start of 2010 as the Red Raiders have gone from knocking on the door of the league’s upper echelon to dwelling in the cellar with Kansas.

One element of the Big 12’s round-robin format that is enjoyable is the fact that every team is either going to have a winning or losing record in conference play due to the 9-game schedule.  Thus, there are only winners and losers and in 2020, Tech will get a shot at finally being a winner again.

Since the Baylor game is no longer a neutral-site farce, Tech will have one more home conference game in even-numbered years moving forward.  So why not use that edge to finally be a winning Big 12 program again?

It’s fair to believe that Tech will be expected to beat both Kansas and West Virginia in Lubbock this year.  So if that comes to fruition and Wells can muster a victory over either Baylor, OU, or Texas in Lubbock, the Red Raiders will have three conference home wins and need just two on the road to be a winning conference team.  Should that happen, 2020 will be considered a wild success.

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