Texas Tech football has played, but never beaten, these teams

Texas Tech football invokes images of high-flying offenses, tortillas sailing through the autumn air, the Masked Rider galloping across the Jones Stadium turf, and some of the most colorful characters college football has ever seen.

All-time, the program has 597 wins. That's 70th-most in the NCAA. The program has also spent 141 total weeks in the A.P. poll, good for 62nd out of 131 FBS programs.

Along the way, the Red Raiders have gone up against some of the marquee programs in the country. However, there have been some interesting programs that Tech has never managed to secure a win against.

What opponents has the Texas Tech football program played but never beaten?

First, let's take a look at some non-Power-5 conference teams that Tech has never secured a win against. As you will see, some of these series have not been played in the modern era of the sport when Texas Tech became a major conference member.

One team that Tech played fairly recently as far as college football goes is East Carolina. The only time these programs have met was in 2000 in the Galleryfurniture.com Bowl in Houston.

That year, Tech went 7-5 in the regular season under first-year head coach Mike Leach. That sent the Red Raiders bowling after missing out on the postseason the year prior.

However, in the Galleryfurniture.com bowl, things did not go well for Tech. In a 40-27 loss, Kliff Kingsbury threw for 307 yards and four TDs but Tech was unable to mount a comeback after falling into a huge early hole.

On New Year's Day of 1948, the Red Raiders closed out the 1947 season by dropping a close 13-12 contest to Miami (OH). That's the only time the two programs have met.

Two seasons later, Tech faced San Jose State in the Raisin Bowl on the final day of 1949. In the 20-13 loss, Tech jumped on the board first but a 7-0 lead turned into a 20-7 deficit by the start of the first quarter. The Border Conference champions, Tech would finish the year 7-4 and reach its fifth bowl game in 11 years.

Tech faced South Florida in the 2017 Birmingham Bowl. On a rainy day when there were only a few thousand people in attendance, the Red Raiders lost a late lead in a 38-34 defeat. Though Keke Coutee would catch 11 balls for 187 yards, UCF would score a TD with 16 seconds to play to seal the win in what would be Kliff Kingsbury's last bowl game as head coach of the Red Raiders.