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Texas Tech football: Disappointing losses haven’t always spelled doom for Red Raiders

By Matthew Conner

Texas Tech quarterback Sonny Cumbie celebrates 45-31 victory over Cal in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, Calif. on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2004. Cumbie was 39 of 60 for a career-high 520 yards and three touchdowns to lead the No. 23 Red Raiders to an upset of No. 4 Cal. (Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images)
Texas Tech quarterback Sonny Cumbie celebrates 45-31 victory over Cal in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, Calif. on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2004. Cumbie was 39 of 60 for a career-high 520 yards and three touchdowns to lead the No. 23 Red Raiders to an upset of No. 4 Cal. (Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images) /
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2 NOV 1991: TEXAS TECH HEAD COACH SPIKE DYKES STANDS ON THE SIDELINE WITH HIS TEAM DURING THE RED RAIDERS23-15 LOSS TO THE TEXAS LONGHORNS AT TEXAS MEMORIAL STADIUM IN AUSTIN, TEXAS. Mandatory Credit: Joe Patronite/ALLSPORT
2 NOV 1991: TEXAS TECH HEAD COACH SPIKE DYKES STANDS ON THE SIDELINE WITH HIS TEAM DURING THE RED RAIDERS23-15 LOSS TO THE TEXAS LONGHORNS AT TEXAS MEMORIAL STADIUM IN AUSTIN, TEXAS. Mandatory Credit: Joe Patronite/ALLSPORT /

1991: Texas Tech Lost to Wyoming in week two but still had a winning season

The bar for the Red Raiders was much lower entering 1991 than it was in 2023.  The year prior, Tech had gone just 4-7 overall and 3-5 in SWC play.

However, the expectation was that the team would get off to a decent start with two winnable games out of the first three on the schedule.  After a predictable win over Cal St. Fullerton and a no-so-surprising loss to Oregon, both in Lubbock, the season took an unexpected turn in Laramie, Wyoming, of all places.

A week after the loss to the Ducks, a 22-17 loss in front of fewer than 19,000 people at War Memorial Stadium was certainly a kick to the gut given that the Red Raiders were multiple-score favorites.  That was part of an ugly four-game losing streak that also included defeats at the hands of TCU and Texas A&M.

However, Spike Dykes’ team rebounded in the second half of the season.  Going 5-1 down the stretch with wins over SMU, Rice, Arkansas, No. 20 Baylor, and Houston (with only two of those games being played in Lubbock), the Red Raiders would end the year a respectable 6-5 overall and 5-3 in SWC, good for third place in the conference standings.

Tech didn’t receive a bowl invite that year because earning one was much more difficult 32 years ago given how few bowls there were in existence.  Still, given how the season began, for Dykes to pull out an above .500 record was nothing to sneeze at, especially given that the program had previously mustered only one winning season in the four years he had been on the job.

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