Texas Tech football: 10 predictions for the Red Raiders in 2022

Tech will ruin one team’s Big 12 title hopes

There was once a time when the Red Raiders were famous for upsetting conference powerhouses on an almost yearly basis.  But that hasn’t been this program’s reality for quite some time.

However, this season, Tech will get back into character and knock off one of the teams vying for the league crown.

Perhaps it will be an early-season win over Texas in Lubbock.  While many think that the Horns will be a factor in the conference race, there’s reason to believe they are vulnerable and that Tech can take them down in Lubbock in week four.

Meanwhile, Kansas State is the trendy pick to be a darkhorse Big 12 title contender.  But with the erratic and unpredictable Nebraska transfer, Adrian Martinez, set to man their QB spot, you never know when the Wildcats will lose a game because of a huge turnover day from their most important player.  Maybe that will be when Tech heads to Manhattan in game No. 5.

A week later, Tech travels to Oklahoma State, a team that sits at No. 12 in the preseason polls.  In each of the last three trips the Red Raiders have made to Stillwater, they have been in a position to steal the win late in the game (if not win it outright as they did in 2018).

Baylor is the preseason favorite to win the league but they haven’t had the easiest time with Tech in years past.  In fact, the last three games between the two programs have been decided by three points or fewer.

Or perhaps the Red Raiders will stun Oklahoma in Lubbock in the season’s final game.  Tech hasn’t beaten OU since 2011 but no one knows what to make of the Sooners this year given their own head coaching and QB changes this offseason.

The point is that one of the Big 12 heavyweights will see their season wrecked by McGuire’s team.  When that happens, it will be a great sign that Tech will finally be back on track towards being the team in the Big 12 that no title contender ever wants to play.