Jump to content

Texas Tech Red Raiders football

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Zzyzx11 (talk | contribs) at 07:14, 6 July 2008 (update {{{image}} on {{Current sport-related}}, Replaced: {{current sport-related → {{current sport-related|image=AmericanFootball current event.svg using AWB). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Texas Tech University football
2008 Texas Tech Red Raiders football
First season1925
Head coach
8th season, 64–37 (.634)
StadiumJones AT&T Stadium
(capacity: 53,000)
Field surfaceFieldTurf
LocationLubbock, Texas
DivisionSouth
All-time record482–383–32 (.555)
Bowl record10–20–1 (.339)
Conference titles11
Consensus All-Americans26 (First-team only) [1]
ColorsScarlet and Black
   
Fight songFight, Raiders, Fight
MascotThe Masked Rider /
Raider Red
Marching bandGoin' Band from Raiderland
WebsiteRedRaiders.com
The 1939 Cotton Bowl

The Texas Tech Red Raiders football program is a college football team that represents Texas Tech University (variously "Tech" or "TTU"). The team is currently a member of the Big 12 Conference, which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The program began in 1925 and has an overall winning record. The program has a total of eleven conference titles. The team is currently coached by Mike Leach and home games are played at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.[2]

History

1925–1960

Texas Tech played its first intercollegiate football game on October 3, 1925. The contest, against McMurry University, ended in a controversial 0–0 tie. Tech's Elson Archibald seemed to have kicked a game-winning 20-yard field goal but the referee ruled that the clock had run out before the score. It was later reported that the referee made the call to get revenge because he wanted to be the team's first head coach but the job was instead given to Ewing Y. Freeland.[3]

Over his four years, Freeland coached the team to 21–10–6 before handing the reins to Grady Higginbotham. Higgenbotham coached for one year, 1929, which saw only one win and two ties to seven losses. His winning percentage of .200 is the worst of any Texas Tech football coach. Pete W. Cawthon replaced Higgenbotham in 1930 and led the team for the next eleven seasons. His winning percentage of .693 has not been surpassed at Texas Tech.[2][4]

For its first seven years, the program was independent, not belonging to an athletic conference. It was during Cawthon's service—in 1932—that Tech joined the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association, which included five other schools at the time. It was also under Cawthon that the team attended its first postseason game, the 1937 Sun Bowl, where it was defeated by West Virginia, 6–7. Cawthon led the team to the Cotton Bowl the following year where they lost to St. Mary's, 13–20.

The next two coaches after Cawthon each held the position for a decade. Dell Morgan started in 1941, garnering a 55–49–3 record which included three bowl appearances that ended in losses. In 1951, DeWitt T. Weaver started his run. At the end of it, he held a record of 49–51–5. During his time, Weaver coached the Red Raiders to their initial bowl victories. The first came against Pacific in 1951 Sun Bowl. The next came two years later in the Gator Bowl. The 1953 Gator Bowl, a 35–13 win over Auburn, is most memorable for the first official public appearance of The Masked Rider:

According to reports from those present at the 1954 Gator Bowl, the crowd sat in stunned silence as they watched [student Joe Kirk] Fulton and Blackie rush onto the football field, followed by the team. After a few moments of stunned disbelief, the silent crowd burst into cheers. Ed Danforth, a writer for the Atlanta Journal and a press box spectator later wrote, "No team in any bowl game ever made a more sensational entrance."[5]

Texas Tech withdrew from the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1956 and was independent for the ensuing three years. The school had tried eight times to gain admittance to the Southwest Conference and had been denied. After the 1952 rejection, many Tech fans cut up their Neiman Marcus charge cards and mailed them back to the Dallas-based retailer. Legend holds that, in response, Stanley Marcus helped sway SMU's vote in Tech's favor.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

1961–1985

J. T. King became the coach of the Red Raiders in 1961. In his nine years, he faired no better nor worse than the man he replaced. With 44 wins, 45 losses, and three ties, his winning percentage of .495 was very close to Weaver's .490. King did lead the team to two bowl games but they were both losses.

The win column saw an upswing under coach Jim Carlen (1970-1974) who finished his five years with a winning record of .644. Steve Sloan (1975-1977) did slightly better with .657. The team's second postseason win came under Carlen when Tech beat Tennessee in the 1973 Gator Bowl. The only bowl tie in the program's history came the following year in the Peach Bowl, 6–6 vs. Vanderbilt. The Red Raiders were not invited to a bowl in 1975 but returned to postseason play in 1976, losing to Nebraska by three in the Bluebonnet Bowl. Tech's appearance in 1977 Tangerine Bowl, where they lost 40–17 to Florida State, was to be the last time the team saw postseason play for nearly a decade.

With the arrival of Rex Dockery, the program would, for the second time in its history, enter into a period of two successive coaches who would return overall losing records. In three years, Dockery coached the Red Raiders to 15–16–2. Jerry Moore took the position in 1981. During his five years, he posted the second worst record of any Texas Tech football coach, only .309. The final tally, though, only tells part of the story since many of the losses came in close games. In 1982, #1 Washington, playing at home, beat the Red Raiders by only a single touchdown. Later in the season, #2 SMU was also only able to squeak by on a single touchdown. In Moore's final season, four of Tech's seven losses were by a combined six points.[6]

1986–present

Tech in action at SMU in 2007.

Upon Moore's release, the job was given to David McWilliams. In spite of not even staying an entire season, he was able to garner a record of .636 and return the team to postseason play. McWilliams departed to become the head coach at Texas, and Spike Dykes took over at Tech just before the 1986 Independence Bowl where the Red Raiders were edged out, 20–17, by Ole Miss.

Dykes bowl game and the 13 complete seasons that followed set a record as the longest stay for any Texas Tech football coach. Although tallying 67 losses and a tie, his 82 wins also set a record as the most victories for a single Tech football coach.

It was in 1996, during Dykes's tenure, that Texas Tech joined the Big 12 Conference. The team has the distinction of being the only one in the Big 12 to have a winning season each year since the conference was created.[7]

The Red Raiders' current head coach, Mike Leach took the position in 2000 when Dykes departed. The team has gone to a bowl game every year since Leach assumed the role. He is the school's all-time winningest coach in postseason play with a 5–3 record. Behind only the Texas Longhorns, the Red Raiders are second in the Big 12 for postseason wins since 2000, having won five of their last six bowl games. In the 2006 Insight Bowl, the team defeated the Minnesota Golden Gophers, overcoming a 31-point deficit in the third quarter to beat their opponent by three in overtime.[8] This made NCAA Division I FBS (formerly I-A) history as the largest come-from-behind bowl victory ever recorded.

Each year since 2001, the American Football Coaches Association has recognized Texas Tech for having a team graduation rate of at least 70 percent. The Graduation Success Rate figures released by the NCAA in October 2007 showed that Tech graduated 79% of its players during the period from 1997 to 2000. This placed it in the top ten nationally and third in the Big 12 (behind only Baylor and Nebraska).[9][10][11]

In July 2007, ESPN ranked all 119 FBS (formerly 1-A) football programs on performance from 1997-2006 and placed Texas Tech at number 32.[12] Also, with twelve, the Red Raiders rank fifth nationally in consecutive winning seasons, trailing only Florida State (30), Michigan (22), Florida (19), and Virginia Tech (14).[13]

Described as a program on the rise, the Red Raiders earned 56 wins from the 2000 through the 2006 season. During the same period, only three other Big 12 teams had more victories—Oklahoma, Texas, and Nebraska. [14]

The Red Raiders, with returning quarterback Graham Harrell and redshirt freshman wide receiver Michael Crabtree, opened the 2007 season in Dallas on September 3, 2007, with a televised game against SMU.[15] Texas Tech defeated the Mustangs, 49–9.[16] After a 45–49 loss to the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the fourth game of the season, defensive coordinator Lyle Setencich resigned and was replaced by Ruffin McNeill, who took the position on an interim basis.[17] The season ended with a 34–27 upset of the #3 Oklahoma Sooners, an 8–4 record, and an invitation to the Gator Bowl, where Tech defeated the Virginia Cavaliers, 31–28, on an Alex Trlica field goal with seven seconds remaining.

Two significant announcements preceded the 2008 season. First, Ruffin McNeill was made the Red Raider's full-time defensive coordinator. Second, a decision was reached to move the annual game against Oklahoma State to Dallas with the first game tenatively scheduled for 2009 at either the Cotton Bowl or the Cowboys' new stadium in nearby Arlington.[18]

Conferences

Jones AT&T Stadium

The football team has been affiliated with the following conferences:

Bowl games

Bowl Games (Record: 10–20–1)
Season Bowl Opponent Result Score
1937 Sun West Virginia L 6–7
1938 Cotton Saint Mary's L 13–20
1941 Sun Tulsa L 0–6
1947 Sun Miami (Ohio) L 12–13
1949 Raisin San Jose State L 13–20
1951 Sun Pacific W 25–14
1953 Gator Auburn W 35–13
1955 Sun Wyoming L 14–21
1964 Sun Georgia L 0–7
1965 Gator Georgia Tech L 21–31
1970 Sun Georgia Tech L 9–17
1972 Sun North Carolina L 28–32
1973 Gator Tennessee W 28–19
1974 Peach Vanderbilt T 6–6
1976 Bluebonnet Nebraska L 24–27
1977 Tangerine Florida State L 17–40
1986 Independence Ole Miss L 17–20
1989 All-American Duke W 49–21
1993 Sun Oklahoma L 10–41
1994 Cotton Southern California L 14–55
1995 Copper Air Force W 55–41
1996 Alamo Iowa L 0–27
1998 Independence Ole Miss L 18–35
2000 Galleryfurniture.com East Carolina L 27–40
2001 Alamo Bowl Iowa L 16–19
2002 Tangerine Clemson W 55–15
2003 Houston Navy W 38–14
2004 Holiday California W 45–31
2005 Cotton Alabama L 13–10
2006 Insight Bowl Minnesota W 44–41OT
2007 Gator Bowl Virginia W 31–28

Player accomplishments

Awards

Red Raiders in the NFL

As of June 2008, 12 Red Raiders currently play in the NFL.[19]

References

  1. ^ "Texas Tech All-Americans" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-12-31. Source includes data to the end of the 2005 season. Michael Crabtree was added in 2007. At the end of 2005, there were also 46 non-first-team All-Americans. Each player is counted only once even if being named to more than one All-American team or being named All-American in more than one season.
  2. ^ a b "Texas Tech Football History Database". Retrieved 2006-12-31.
  3. ^ "Texas Tech A-to-Z". Retrieved 2006-12-31.
  4. ^ As of January 1, 2008.
  5. ^ "A history of one of Texas Tech's Oldest and Best-Loved Traditions". Texas Tech Center for Campus Life. Retrieved 2008-01-01.
  6. ^ "Moore finds success that was elusive at Tech". Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  7. ^ http://kansasstate.rivals.com/barrier_noentry.asp?sid=889&script=/content.asp&cid=680485&fid=&tid=&mid=
  8. ^ ESPN - Down 31, Texas Tech rallies for biggest bowl comeback - NCAA College Football Recap
  9. ^ Texas Tech Sports presented by The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
  10. ^ Football Grad Rates Among Top 10 :: Graduation Success Rate (GSR) for Red Raider program second in BCS public comparisons
  11. ^ ESPN - Nearly three of four bowl teams meet minimum NCAA academic mark - College Football
  12. ^ ESPN - Middling major conference teams, top mid-majors among Nos. 26-50 - College Football
  13. ^ LubbockOnline.com - Texas Tech-SMU game facts 09/03/07
  14. ^ ESPN - Teams just outside top 25 include big names, underachieving programs - College Football
  15. ^ Football - Texas Tech Red Raiders :: The Official Athletic Site
  16. ^ Tech's defense has the answer | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | SportsDay: Colleges: Top Stories
  17. ^ Defensive coordinator steps down - Sports
  18. ^ Texas Tech, Okla. State to play in Dallas
  19. ^ "NFL Players By College - T". ESPN. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Texas Tech Red Raiders.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Texas_Tech_Red_Raiders_football&oldid=223870920"