One national publication gives unexciting bowl projection for Texas Tech

For most programs, making it to a bowl game is the minimum bar to clear each season. However, the Texas Tech football program has loftier aspirations than simply scratching its way to the postseason in 2024.

One national publication, though, projects that's exactly what will happen for the Red Raiders. Recently, Bill Bender of The Sporting News projected the matchups for every bowl game this season and though he does see the Red Raiders in the postseason, he doesn't have them headed to a bowl with much sizzle to it.

According to Bender's projection, Tech will wind up in the Servpro First Responder Bowl on January 3rd. He foresees a matchup with Navy in that game. Snooze.

The First Responder Bowl is one of the least prestigious postseason games in college football. Played at the home of SMU football, Gerald J. Ford Stadium, in Dallas, it has only been in existence since 2011.

Some may remember this bowl game, though, because Tech has actually played in it before. Back on New Year's Day of 2011, the Red Raiders took on Northwestern in the inaugural TicketCity.com Bowl, which was played in the Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas. Now, that game is known as the First Responder Bowl, the name it has had since 2018.

To understand just how terrible of a bowl game this is, know that since 2019, only one major conference team (Louisville in 2021) has appeared in it. What's more, it's been since 2012 that a ranked major conference team took part.

Last season, the First Responder Bowl featured a woeful matchup between 7-5 Texas State and 6-6 Rice. The year prior, two 6-6 teams, Memphis and Utah State, met in what was a tickle fight for the ages.

Sure, other major conference programs such as Oklahoma State, Penn State, Washington, West Virginia, and Purdue have appeared in this bowl game. But only one of those programs (Penn State in 2012) had more than seven wins entering the contest.

This year, the Red Raiders are planning on much more than just playing in a non-descript bowl game. That's the expectation of the fan base as well.

In year three of the Joey McGuire era, the belief within the program and the fandom is that Tech will take a step forward and challenge for a spot in the Big 12 title game. Simply winning seven regular-season games won't get that done, though.

Of course, seven wins is the most McGuire has captured in his first two regular seasons in Lubbock. He guided Tech to a 7-5 mark in 2022 and a 6-6 mark last fall. Fortunately for him, he has won a bowl game in each of his two campaigns in charge of the Red Raiders meaning he's had two winning seasons to begin his tenure as a college head coach.

On the other hand, Tech didn't bring McGuire on board just to play in low-tier, no-stakes bowl games. Rather, the charge is for McGuire to make the Red Raiders relevant on the national scene again.

With the Big 12 now lacking a bully since Oklahoma and Texas are off to the SEC, there is no reason for the Red Raiders to believe they can't be an annual threat to reach the conference title game. But if Bender's forecast is correct, that won't happen this year.

Now, it must be said that Bender is a national pundit. Those types often aren't plugged in well enough to know the nuances of every program or conference in the nation and they often are somewhat lazy or predictable in their offseason projections.

What Bender has done, though, is to remind us that Texas Tech is not going to get the benefit of the doubt this year as it did a year ago. Tech will have to earn every bit of respect that it garners in 2024. Perhaps that's the best way for this program to operate, though. After all, we learned the hard way in 2023 that offseason projections mean next to nothing once the ball is kicked off.