Texas Tech football: Three must-win games on the 2022 schedule

It isn’t a stretch to suggest that the 2022 Texas Tech football schedule is the most difficult slate of games this program has undertaken in two decades.  In fact, just one look at the preseason Coach’s Top 25 poll confirms how daunting this year’s schedule is.

Released on Monday, the first poll of the year has six Red Raider opponents in the top 25 (Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas, NC State, Oklahoma State, and Houston).  That’s 50% of the teams that Joey McGuire’s squad will face this season.

It’s shaping up to be the most challenging schedule Tech has had since 2002.  That year, Kliff Kingsbury’s senior season, the Red Raiders opened the season at No. 13 Ohio State (the eventual national champions) while also facing Eli Manning and Ole Miss on the road and Phillip Rivers and No. 17 NC State in Lubbock.

What’s more, that season saw Tech face No. 23 Texas A&M, No. 11 Iowa State, No. 21 Colorado, and No. 4 Oklahoma with only one of those games coming at home.

Right now, Tech is favored in only four of this season’s games according to the ESPN Football Power Index Matchup Predictor.  Those four games are Murray State, Houston, West Virginia, and Kansas.

Of course, those odds could change as the season unfolds being as ESPN’s matchup predictor is based on stats.  Therefore, if the Red Raiders perform well early in the year, they could find that they are given more of the benefit of the doubt by prognosticators.

But as it stands right now, Tech is going to have to pull off a couple of upsets in order to reach bowl eligibility.  Of course, the Red Raiders also must take care of business in the games that they are supposed to win.

So today, let’s look at the three games that the Red Raiders must win this year.  And we will begin with a huge non-conference matchup.