Texas Tech football: What to know about the Houston Cougars

Isn’t it refreshing to finally have an opponent to scout?  And this week sees the Texas Tech football program take on a rather familiar foe in the Houston Cougars.

This will be the 35th edition of this series, which dates back to 1951.  Overall, the Cougars hold an 18-13-1 edge.

But most of that series advantage was built in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the two teams were conference foes.  During that era, Houston football was at its most relevant on a national scene while Texas Tech couldn’t get out of its own way as a program.

Thus, from 1979-1985, the Cougars rattled off seven consecutive wins over the Red Raiders.  But the good news is that in recent years, this series has been dominated by Tech.

In fact, since 1991, the Red Raiders are 8-1 against Houston with the lone loss coming in 2009.  Of course, Texas Tech’s presence in the Big 12 and Houston’s exclusion from the big kids’ table has played a huge role in how this series has played out over the last three decades.

But though this series has become rather one-sided, it has not been devoid of dramatic moments and heroic performances in recent years.

In 2018’s 63-49 Red Raider win in Lubbock, two Red Raiders re-wrote the school’s record book.  QB Alan Bowman set the program record for passing yards in a game by a freshman with 605 while wide receiver Antoine Wesley broke the school mark for receiving yards in a game with 261.

The year prior, it was a much more defensive showdown in Houston.  So it was fitting that a Red Raider defensive player had one of the greatest performances of his career to help Tech to a 27-24 win.

Making 12 total tackles (eight solo), linebacker Dakota Allen was everywhere that day while playing close to home.  It was arguably his finest hour as a Red Raider but he paid the price as after the game, he went into a full-body cramp after laying it all on the line on a particularly steamy afternoon.

Of course, many Mike Leach-era fans would like to forget 2009’s 29-28 loss in Houston.  That night, Leach made an ill-fated decision to go for it on 4th down in the 3rd quarter rather than kicking a field goal from the one-yard line.  That would prove to be a huge gaffe on Leach’s part and eventually, U of H QB Kase Keenum would score the winning TD on a 4-yard run with under a minute to play.

The point is that, when these two programs get together, it is usually a spirited affair.  That’s because Tech wants desperately to hang on to its status as the bully in this series while Houston usually elevates its game as the Cougars see the Red Raiders as an opportunity to gain some serious credibility.

So we all expect U of H to play with tons of emotion and passion on Saturday night.  But what can we expect from them as a team?  Let’s take a look at three things Texas Tech fans need to know about the Cougars.