Texas Tech football: The most painful plays in Red Raider history

Aaron Green of TCU catches TD off a deflection in 2015

I still don’t know how the ball that TCU RB Aaron Green caught in the north endzone of Jones Stadium in 2015 made its way to him and not out of bounds.  And I still don’t know how I didn’t vomit that night as I watched the unthinkable unfold from my seats.

Leading No. 3 TCU 52-48 with just 23 seconds to play, the Texas Tech football program was on the verge of pulling off the type of upset that the Kliff Kingsbury era desperately needed but never produced.  All the defense needed was one stop from the 4-yard-line.

The pass from QB Trevone Boykin was dreadful.  Despite being under no pressure, he sailed a pass to the back of the endzone for a receiver crossing from right to left.  That receiver was able to get just enough of a hand on the ball to tip it up and allow Green to dive in and cradle it in his arms before it hit the turf.

That was the moment that the Kingsbury era started to truly go off the rails.  Coming on the heels of a 4-8 season, Tech was in position for its first win over a top 5 team since 2012 and taking down such a highly-rated hated rival would have sent the fans in Lubbock into delirium the likes of which we haven’t seen since Harrell to Crabtree in 2008.

What’s more, this game came a game after a road upset of Arkansas in which Kingsbury exorcised some personal demons against Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema.  The momentum that the program would have generated by following that win up with an upset of No. 3 TCU would have been the type that could have set the season up for something special.

It wasn’t meant to be as the football gods overruled the laws of physics and kept the ball in play rather than sending it careening out of the back of the end zone.   Footballs are funny-shaped objects that do wildly unpredictable things while in flight and never have we been more cognizant of that fact that on September 26, 2015.