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Texas Tech football: 5 best-case scenarios for 2020

By Matthew Conner

AUSTIN, TX - NOVEMBER 24: T.J. Vasher #9 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders catches a pass for a touchdown defended by Davante Davis #18 of the Texas Longhorns in the fourth quarter at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on November 24, 2017 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TX - NOVEMBER 24: T.J. Vasher #9 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders catches a pass for a touchdown defended by Davante Davis #18 of the Texas Longhorns in the fourth quarter at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on November 24, 2017 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images) /
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The Texas Tech Red Raiders take the field before the game against the Kansas Jayhawks on October 20, 2018 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech defeated Kansas 48-16. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
The Texas Tech Red Raiders take the field before the game against the Kansas Jayhawks on October 20, 2018 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech defeated Kansas 48-16. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

As we prepare for the start of the 2020 Texas Tech football season, here are five best-case scenarios we should hope for.

Texas Tech football is tentatively set to return to action this Saturday.  We say “tentatively” because, in the world of COVID-19, no game is guaranteed to take place.

There will be two more rounds of testing this week for the Red Raiders and the results thereof will determine whether the roster will be sufficiently stocked for an actual game. And we should assume nothing given what we’ve already seen take place around the country on that front.

Big 12 bunkmate Oklahoma State has already pushed this week’s scheduled opener against Tulsa back to next Saturday, September 19th, because the Tulsa program has been able to hold just seven practices in the last 17 days due to numerous COVID-19 cases within the program.  That postponement comes after the Golden Hurricane had to suspend fall camp for nine days due to the impact of the virus.

Similarly, TCU has had to reschedule this Friday’s planned rivalry game with SMU due to COVID-19 positive tests within the Horned Frog program.  What’s more, it is uncertain if the annual battle for the Iron Skillet will be able to be held this year or not.

But on the optimistic side of the ledger is the fact that we’ve already seen a number of college football games take place proving that football can and will be played during this global pandemic.  Perhaps most encouraging is the fact that Texas Tech’s opponent on Saturday, Houston Baptist, has already played a game losing to North Texas 57-31 this past Saturday.

It would stand to reason that HBU would be motivated to play this game regardless of how thin their roster could potentially be given that they will receive a huge payout from Tech.  Make no mistake, the Huskies have less interest in trying to win this game than they do trying to generate enough revenue to fully fund their athletic department thus making it likely that they would field a team on Saturday even if they have to recruit a few student managers to round out the secondary.

Hopefully, this game will go off without a hitch and we will see some real football at Jones Stadium for the first time since last November.  And if we do, the game will take place six months to the day after the first Texas Tech sporting event was lost due to the coronavirus pandemic, as Matt Wells pointed out during Monday’s press conference.

Back on March 12th, the Texas Tech basketball team was set to face Texas in the Big 12 Tournament in what was considered by most to be a pseudo play-in game for the NCAA Tournament.  Now, half-a-year later, we are supposed to see our first Red Raider competition since then come Saturday night.  And when (fingers crossed) that happens and the 2020 season gets underway, here are five best-case scenarios that we will be hoping to see as the fall unfolds.

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