Texas Tech football: What went wrong for the Red Raiders in 2023

Texas Tech still struggled to win road games

Finally, let's remind ourselves that this program still has a problem when it comes to winning road games under McGuire's leadership. Though the wins at Baylor and Kansas were nice, Tech still went just 2-4 away from Lubbock in the regular season and that is not how a championship-caliber team handles itself.

The most disappointing road contests of the year had to be the ones that should have been winnable. For instance, Tech had no business losing to Wyoming in Laramie. Altitude aside, Tech should have taken down a decent but not great Cowboy team that managed to drop four games on the year. Granted, none were at home but still, Tech should always expect to beat a Group of 5 team, no matter where the game is played.

BYU was also a winnable game that Tech could have won had true freshman Jake Strong not been forced to make his first career start in Provo, Utah. Overall, the Cougars went just 5-7 on the season and after they beat Tech, they didn't win again.

Yes, Provo can be a raucous place to play but BYU did lose twice at home in 2023 proving that it is possible to emerge from Lavell Edwards Stadium with a win. Tech couldn't do that, though and it is fair to wonder if the story would have been different had Behren Morton been able to play that night.

Overall, Tech is just 3-8 in true road games under McGuire. That is perhaps the last thing Tech has to figure out before this program can truly take a step forward under the current coaching staff.

The expectation was that this year the road struggles would be corrected in year two of the McGuire era but that proved to remain an issue that this program has yet to figure out. In fact, in 2023, the Red Raiders were outscored by a combined 44 points on the road. If the Red Raiders can somehow manage to fix this problem in 2024, perhaps that will be the year they finally become conference contenders once again.