With the Orange Bowl just around the corner, the Texas Tech Red Raiders will be heading into a matchup with the Oregon Ducks and Joey McGuire’s team will be boasting one of the best turnover margins in the country.
In the 13 games that the Red Raiders have played up to this point, Texas Tech has recovered 17 more turnovers than what Texas Tech has lost. That puts the Red Raiders with a per game average margin of 1.31 turnovers.
Which is really good! Texas Tech isn’t making many mistakes and the Red Raiders seem capable of taking advantage of the mistakes of their opponents. That’s something worth celebrating.
The Texas Tech Red Raiders are tied for No. 2 in the nation in turnover margin ahead of the Orange Bowl against the Oregon Ducks
Here are the top teams in the country when it comes to forcing turnovers (and also avoiding fumbling or throwing the ball away):
- Arizona Wildcats - 1.33 per game
- Texas Tech Red Raiders - 1.31 per game
- Indiana Hoosiers - 1.31 per game
- UConn Huskies - 1.15 per game
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish - 1.08 per game
- Southern Miss Golden Eagles - 1.08 per game
- Texas Longhorns - 1 per game
- Kansas State Wildcats - 0.92 per game
- SMU Mustangs - 0.92 per game
- Temple Owls - 0.92 per game
The fact that two of the top three teams (and three of the top 10 teams) are out of the Big 12 is fascinating to me. That’s not something I would have expected, but it’s a fact that I’m going to enjoy. Also, hey, three of the top 10 teams are from the state of Texas (and they’re from three different conferences as well). That’s intriguing as well.
It’s also interesting that there are two College Football Playoff contenders here in the top 10 and they happen to be tied with one another as the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Indiana Hoosiers are tied with positive 1.31 turnovers per game.
It’d probably be pretty safe to venture the guess that this sort of positive turnover margin helped both of those teams get to this point in the season.