Wreck'Em Red
Fansided

Texas Tech football: Streaks that need to end in 2022

By Matthew Conner

Oct 9, 2021; Lubbock, Texas, USA; The Texas Tech Red Raiders enter the field before the game agains the Texas Christian Horned Frogs at Jones AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 9, 2021; Lubbock, Texas, USA; The Texas Tech Red Raiders enter the field before the game agains the Texas Christian Horned Frogs at Jones AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
6 of 6
Next
Oklahoma’s Marvin Mims (17) catches a touchdown pass during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021.Ou Vc Texas Tech
Oklahoma’s Marvin Mims (17) catches a touchdown pass during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021.Ou Vc Texas Tech /

Four straight seasons without beating Oklahoma or Texas

There’s no denying that this program has been lacking signature victories in recent years; wins that truly move the needle with the fan base.  Last season’s bowl win over Mike Leach and Mississippi State certainly counted as one but this program needs to start amassing those types of victories with far more regularity.

In fact, Tech needs to start racking up signature wins in Big 12 play to show that this program is back on the rise towards being a contender.  And the best way to do that is to knock off either Texas or Oklahoma.

Unfortunately, the Red Raiders haven’t beaten the Longhorns since 2017 when Nic Shimonek came off the bench in Austin to lead a 4th-quarter comeback.  Even worse, the program hasn’t knocked off the Sooners since Seth Doege scored an improbable upset of then No. 1 OU in Norman back in 2011.

Since that rainy night eleven years ago, Tech has gone just 2-18 against the Horns and the Sooners with both of those wins coming in Austin.  That needs to change this season, especially since both of the Big 12’s marquee programs will play at Jones Stadium.

Tech is in desperate need of some signature wins at home.  Since the dawn of the Kingsbury era (2013), most of the program’s meaningful wins have come on the road or in bowl games.  For example, there was the 2013 Holiday Bowl win over No. 14 Arizona State, there was the upset of Arkansas in Fayetteville in 2015, there were a few wins over TCU in Fort Worth, and there were two wins in Austin.

Last season, Tech did get an emotional victory over Iowa State in Lubbock.  That game will forever be legendary thanks to the dramatic 62-yard field goal that Jonathan Garibay hit as time expired.

But beating Iowa State is one thing.  Beating Texas or OU is another.

There was a time when Texas Tech football seemed to rack up signature wins on an almost annual basis.  Of course, that was during the Leach years when Tech would notch 12 combined wins over Texas, OU, and A&M in a 10-season span.

Now, A&M is off the radar meaning that the best opportunities for signature wins come against the Horns and the Sooners.  This year, both of those blue-blood programs have serious questions to answer.  OU is under the guidance of new head coach Brent Venables, who has never been a head coach at the college level, and Texas is coming off of a 5-7 season.

Could this be the year that the program finally starts to turn the tide against these two superpowers?  Here’s hoping so because, with both programs set to leave the Big 12 for the SEC in two years, the opportunities to secure headling-grabbing wins against the Horns and Sooners are starting to run out.

Home/Texas Tech Football