Wreck'Em Red
Fansided

Texas Tech football: 5 worst moments of 2020 season

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 26: The Texas Tech Red Raiders' helmet is pictured before the college football game against the Texas Longhorns on September 26, 2020 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 26: The Texas Tech Red Raiders' helmet is pictured before the college football game against the Texas Longhorns on September 26, 2020 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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Nov 7, 2020; Fort Worth, Texas, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders place kicker Trey Wolff (36) misses a field goal late in the fourth quarter against the TCU Horned Frogs at Amon G. Carter Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Dieb-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 7, 2020; Fort Worth, Texas, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders place kicker Trey Wolff (36) misses a field goal late in the fourth quarter against the TCU Horned Frogs at Amon G. Carter Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Dieb-USA TODAY Sports /

No. 3: The missed 2nd down FG vs TCU

A reasonable case could be made that Matt Wells’ decision to kick a field goal on second down when trailing TCU by nine points with 2:44 to play in the game was justifiable.  After all, Tech was going to need two scores to win that game.

Yet most, myself included, still feel that it was the wrong decision.  Mainly because at that point in the year, kicker Trey Wolff had made only one FG all year so asking him to boot a 37-yarder with the game essentially on the line was unwise.  Also, at that point in the game, Tech was finally moving the football and had picked up 47 yards on its previous four plays so keeping the offense on the field to capitalize on that momentum and try to reach the endzone.

Regardless of how you feel about Wells’ decision, this moment has to go down as one of the worst of the 2020 season.  That’s because it cost Tech a win over a hated rival and truly gave life to the fire-Wells movement.

For many fans, this was the moment that broke the camel’s back when it came to the current head coach.  It wasn’t his first controversial in-game decision but it was his most aggravating to many fans.

It led to Tech’s fifth loss in its last six games and it guaranteed that the program would not have a winning record for the fifth-straight year.  Thus, that moment is what turned a huge swath of the fan base against the current coaching regime as it guaranteed that Tech was not going to show any signs of significant progress in regard to the win-loss record, the only measure that truly matters.

Why Wells put this game on the right foot of a kicker who was 1-4 on the season up to that point is beyond puzzling.  And why he trusted that kicker instead of his offense when there was still nearly three minutes to play and he had a full complement of timeouts only adds to the frustration that fans felt over the decision. That’s why it was one of the worst moments of the year.

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