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Texas Tech football: Ranking 2020’s games by importance to Matt Wells (No. 7-12)

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - OCTOBER 05: Head coach Matt Wells of the Texas Tech Red Raiders leaves the field after the college football game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys on October 05, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - OCTOBER 05: Head coach Matt Wells of the Texas Tech Red Raiders leaves the field after the college football game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys on October 05, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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MANHATTAN, KS – NOVEMBER 17: Wide receiver De’Quan Bowman #8 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders brakes away from defensive back Jahron McPherson #31 of the Kansas State Wildcats (Photo by Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images)
MANHATTAN, KS – NOVEMBER 17: Wide receiver De’Quan Bowman #8 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders brakes away from defensive back Jahron McPherson #31 of the Kansas State Wildcats (Photo by Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images) /

No. 9 – Kansas State

Does anyone in the nation hate Kansas State football?  It’s hard to imagine so given that the only hated rival the Wildcats have is Kansas, which cares as much about football as schools other than Texas Tech care about meat judging.

Thus, losing to Kansas State, at which Tech has become rather adept in recent years, is not going to bring about too much weeping and gnashing of teeth.  That’s especially true in 2020 when Tech travels to Manhattan where Red Raider fans have grown accustomed to seeing their team wet the bed.

In fact, the last time Tech won at KSU was in 2008, a 58-28 cakewalk.  Isn’t it interesting how many negative streaks involving the Texas Tech football program date back to 2008?

Tech simply doesn’t care about Kansas State football for 51 weeks a year.  Thus, it’s hard to work up all that much vitriol for them when the yearly rematch rolls around.

Therefore, this is a game that Wells could lose and still save face, especially if the game is close.  Far from a rivalry game, the November 11th matchup will also coincide with what we assume will be the first week of the college basketball season meaning that all eyes and hearts in Lubbock will be focusing on Chris Beard and not Wells.

Still, this is a series that Texas Tech once owned after starting off 8-3 against the Wildcats in the all-time series.  But dropping the last four in a row and eight of the last nine has dropped Tech two games behind KSU in the series and that needs to change if the Red Raiders are going to start to climb back into relevance in the conference.

Therefore, this game has some importance to it given that Tech and KSU are constantly fighting for the same place in the Big 12 hierarchy.  ESPN has Tech at just a 34.7% shot at claiming this win so if Wells can’t become the first coach since Mike Leach to take his team into Manhattan and come out with a win, it won’t cause fans in Lubbock to riot.  After all, we will have Chris Beard back in our life by then to make everything ok.

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