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Texas Tech football: Red Raiders show tremendous character in victory over WVU

By Matthew Conner

Oct 24, 2020; Lubbock, Texas, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders quarterback Henry Colombi (3) scores a touchdown against West Virginia Mountaineers defensive linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo (7) in the first half at Jones AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 24, 2020; Lubbock, Texas, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders quarterback Henry Colombi (3) scores a touchdown against West Virginia Mountaineers defensive linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo (7) in the first half at Jones AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports /
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By beating West Virginia in Lubbock on Saturday night, the Texas Tech football team finally displayed the type of character that we were told we should expect from a Matt Wells team.

I’ve been as hard on Matt Wells and his coaching staff as anyone this season.  Thus, it is only fair that I give them tremendous credit for the character their team displayed in Saturday night’s 34-27 victory over West Virginia in Morgantown.

Coming off of three consecutive losses to open the Big 12 portion of the season and playing without some key regulars such as KeSean Carter, T.J. Vasher, Nick McCann, and Chadarius Townsend just to name a few, Tech finally found a way to scratch out a win in the type of game that has all too often gotten away from them in the last few seasons.

All night, the Red Raiders traded blows with the favored Mountaineers and for much of the evening, they looked the part of the better team on both sides of the football.  But after once holding a 20-10 lead late in the second quarter, Wells’ team entered the fourth quarter tied with Neal Brown’s squad 27-27.

Far too often in years past, as well as earlier this season, games that were there for the taking in the final frame have gone awry for the Red Raiders.  For instance, there was the Texas game that Tech led by 15 points with just over three minutes to play and there was the Kansas State game that Tech led 21-17 in the fourth.  Both went in the loss column and that’s why when the Red Raiders and the Mountaineers were deadlocked late in Saturday’s game, I had my doubts.

But going against script, linebacker Jacob Morgenstern stripped the ball from WVU receiver Sam James in the middle of the fourth quarter allowing defensive back Zech McPhearson to execute a 56-yard scoop-and-score for what would prove to be the game-winning TD.

It was the most anti typical Tech finish imaginable in a game that played out in a manner opposite of how most Red Raider wins of the past five years have come.  Instead of a high-scoring shootout, this game was a rock fight from start to finish with yards tough to come by and big hits outnumbering big gains.

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And through it all, Matt Wells’ team displayed the testicular fortitude needed to claim their second-straight win over the Mountaineers.  It’s as impressive of a victory as there has been in the Wells era given not only the way it was earned, through hard-nosed defense and a grind-it-out offensive attack, but also because of the circumstances that led up to it.

Coming off of a bye week, the Red Raiders had been forced to sit around Lubbock for two weeks while everyone criticized them for their half-hearted effort in their previous game, a 31-15 loss to Iowa State.  What’s more, they were breaking in a new starting quarterback, Henry Colombi, who was making his first career start.

But in the face of heavy criticism about every aspect of the program from the athletic director, to the head coach, to the players themselves, this program picked itself up off the matt and responded with a gutsy win that didn’t come easy.

Colombi was solid.  Completing 22-28 passes for 169 yards and a TD, he made no critical mistakes against the team that entered the weekend rated tops in the NCAA in total defense.  What’s more, he made timely plays with both his arm and his feet as he picked up 40 yards and another score on the ground.

It was a good enough effort to earn him another start next week against Oklahoma and it was a good enough effort to give his team a chance to win.  He kept his teammates in the game and for once, they came up big down the stretch.

But the real MVP was Wells and by extension his coaching staff.  Trying to motivate a 1-3 team that had been forced to sit around and listen to the rest of the world tell them that they were headed for a disastrous season that would rival Kansas’s ineptness, they could have decided to listen to the outside noise and waived the white flag on 2020.  But rather, they bought into what their head coach was selling and it paid off in the form of a gritty and desperately needed win.

One win does not a season or a tenure make.  We still have a long way to go before we know how the story of Wells’ second season will read and there are still legitimate reasons to question whether or not this is the coaching staff that is going to turn this ship around.

But for one night, it was apparent that Wells and his staff were able to get the most out of their team, even when they were shorthanded, and that’s a great sign moving forward because this was perhaps the first time in the Matt Wells era that his team took on the type of attitude and character that we were told by Kirby Hocutt drew him to Wells in the first place. Now, the key will be for these types of efforts to become the rule rather than the exception.

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