It’s probably not a great thing that JT King lost the first bowl game that he was involved in at Texas Tech. It’s definitely not a great thing that JT King lost the second bowl game that he was involved in at Texas Tech.
We’re talking about a guy who somehow, in back-to-back seasons, found a way to lose back-to-back bowl games.
And we’re talking about back-to-back bowl losses that involved the Georgia Bulldogs (shoutout to the 1964 Sun Bowl that featured a 7-0 beating for Texas Tech) and then the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (shoutout to the1965 Gator Bowl and a 10 beating for the Red Raiders.
Oh! And it’s worth noting that King never got the Red Raiders back to another bowl game after that. In 100 percent of his bowl matchups as the head coach at Texas Tech, King found a way to lose to a team from Georgia and he did that in back-to-back seasons.
That’s just flat out impressive, to be completely honest.
Texas Tech football history: JT King and TTU suffered back-to-back bowl losses thanks to the 1965 Gator Bowl mess vs. Georgia Tech
On top of all of that back-to-back fun shenanigans for JT King and the Red Raiders vs. teams from Georgia, it’s also worth pointing out that King lost to Georgia’s legendary coach Vince Dooley and then Georgia Tech’s legendary coach Bobby Dodd.
That’s just horrendously bad luck to get that sort of draw in consecutive seasons, right?
And it’s not like Texas Tech was bad or underwhelming in any way. The Red Raiders were ranked at No. 10 when they met up with Georgia Tech in the Gator Bowl. Texas Tech had an 8-2 record prior to the bowl loss.
It's also worth noting that Texas Tech had just shy of 400 yards of offense in this game. The Red Raiders threw for 283 yards and moved the ball up and down the field. But, uh, a couple of picks and Georgia Tech running for 364 yards kind of doomed the Red Raiders. And that stinks.