Texas Tech football 2023 rewatch: What went wrong in Wyoming?

What the loss meant for Texas Tech

After an offseason of hype, this loss essentially killed any hopes the Texas Tech football team had of being nationally relevant in 2023. What's more, it totally changed the program's philosophy of playing road games at Group of 5 schools.

Sure, last November, AD Kirby Hocutt said that one motivation to stop playing at Group of 5 schools and to play seven home games per season was to get more games at home to help justify the $250 million renovation to Jones Stadium.

However, it doesn't seem like that decision would have been made had Tech not been embarrassed at Wyoming on national television. That's undeniable.

Now, Tech plans to buy out of a 2025 road game at Colorado State and could eventually buy out of a future road game at North Texas as well, even though that game would be played in the Texas Tech-friendly Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

This game also showed us something important about Tyler Shough. Yes, he was decent statistically going 31 of 47 passing for 338 yards and three scores but that doesn't tell the entire story.

Several times in this game, Shough was almost picked off again, including on Tech's final drive of regulation as he had a pass go through a defender's hands at the Wyoming goal line. What's more, he had at least three passes deflected or batted down at the line.

It was clear after this game that Shough wasn't the guy to lead this program to anything resembling greatness. We would see further examples of that as the season progressed until his season-ending injury in week four. But the signs that he and the 2023 team were not ready to compete for championships were on display in this ugly and shocking loss to Wyoming to open the season.