Texas Tech football: Game by game predictions for 2020 season

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T.J. Vasher #9 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders makes the catch against Corione Harris #2 of the Kansas Jayhawks (called back due to penalty) during the game on October 20, 2018 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech defeated Kansas 48-16. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

Kansas – Win

Speaking of not taking a team for granted and wanting to avenge an embarrassing loss from 2019, that’s going to be the theme of the final week of the regular season when Kansas comes to The Jones. Look for Tech to take out some frustrations from last year’s wild 37-34 loss in Lawrence and cap their best regular season in a decade with a resounding beating of the Jayhawks.

Gone is QB Carter Stanley, the only competent Jayhawk signal-caller of the last decade and that should neutralize the surprisingly effective KU deep passing attack from 2019. Thus, teams will be more capable of keying on star junior RB Pooka Williams.

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Receivers Andrew Parchment and Stephon Robinson Jr. return and both torched Tech in Lawrence last season. But being as the two players competing for the starting QB job combined to throw just one pass in 2019, those two explosive weapons could see their impact significantly diminished this year.

On defense, Les Miles’ team will have to replace 10 of its top 17 tacklers from a 2019 unit that was last in the conference in total defense, scoring defense, sacks, takeaways, and run defense. What’s more, in eight of KU’s 10 all-time trips to Lubbock, the Red Raiders have gone off for at least 30 points. Look for that trend to continue in 2020 as Tech ends a rebound regular season with a win.

When I sit back and look at my prediction that Tech will go 7-3 this year, it feels a bit unrealistic, especially for a sports pessimist such as myself. But when you look at each game, there should be only one time that Tech will be truly overmatched talent-wise and hat will be against the Sooners.

On the other hand, the Red Raiders can compete with every other team in the Big 12 this year and that’s a testament to the excellent work it appears Wells has done in rebuilding his roster on the fly by using the transfer portal. Also, his team returns the vast majority of last year’s key contributors and a second year in the Wells system should yield better results.

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Of course, there will be wildcards this year such as COVID-19 and Alan Bowman’s health. But this is the most complete Red Raider team since 2009 and it is one that will start the program’s turnaround in year-two of the Matt Wells era.

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