There are all sorts of high expectations for what success will look like being placed on Joey McGuire and the Texas Tech Red Raiders football team heading into this season. We’re talking about some folks expecting the Red Raiders to have a shot at competing in the Big 12 championship game and making it into the College Football Playoff.
But that’s not what Erick Smith over at USA Today is expecting for the Texas Tech football team. For one reason or another, he seems to be expecting the opposite for McGuire and the Red Raiders.
Now, I’m not saying that Smith is wrong or that he absolutely has to have the Red Raiders in the College Football Playoff or anything along those lines. That’s not where I’m at. I have no clue exactly what to expect from this particular Texas Tech team. I just don’t expect an actively bad season or something completely and totally underwhelming.
And that’s more or less where Smith has the Red Raiders.
USA Today projects Texas Tech to face off against UTSA in the First Responders Bowl for some bizarre reason
For some reason, he has Texas Tech matched up with the UTSA Road Runners in the First Responders Bowl. And just a reminder that the First Responders Bowl is a fine destination and it’s a fun bowl game but it’s not where Texas Tech should go in a season that is supposed to be as good as what this season could be.
With all of the transfer portal talent and the folks returning, there are high expectations for what a successful season would look like for the folks in Lubbock.
The First Responders Bowl doesn’t fit that description. At all.
To get there, Texas Tech would likely have a pretty underwhelming sort of season. We’re talking about a conference record that is closer to .500 than what Red Raider fans want out of this season. We’d be looking at a season that has Texas Tech right in the middle of the Big 12.
There’s no way that’s what Texas Tech fans want from this year with all that has gone into the NIL roster spend and the sort of headlines that the Red Raiders have drawn over the offseason.