Well, Tech did it again. Came from behind in the final minute and upset U of Minnesota again. This one was pretty exciting but in 2006, down by something like 30 at halftime, Tech & Graham Harrell came back to tie it and win in OT 34-31. It was the biggest comeback in bowl history and it was beautiful. I remember being down about it and setting the recorder and going to bed. The next morning, I watched the end of the game many times. Last night we weren't behind by that much...31-24 with less than 5 minutes and a great drive, an interception and a field goal later we won...34-31. I'm sure the Minnesota fans were thinking WTH? Deja vu all over again!!
Local radio personality Aaron Dickens tweeted: #TexasTech Ripping the hearts out of Minnesota fans in the postseason since 2006
While former Head Coach Spike Dykes, as only Spike can put it, tweeted: Uglier than buzzard puke, but a win is a win.
It was a great win to end an horrible era in Texas Tech football. Face it, all of Texas Tech sports right now. But we're talking football. You see, we always had ok teams and went to bowl games. Normally the bottom tier games, like the Meineke Car Care Bowl like we just won. We weren't up with the big dogs--
Texas, Texas A&M, even SMU (pre-death penalty days)--but we were not in the bottom either. 4th of 8 in the SWC, 4th or 5th in Big 12. But then Mike Leach happened. His strange little mind pictured a different way to play football and the league and other coaches made fun of his plan and him. But then Klif Kingsbury, BJ Symons, Sonny Cumbie, Cody Hodges and Graham Harrel happened. All were QB's that got the plan and shined. Sure it was a system but it was a good system and Tech started to win. Other programs in the league made fun of it but everyone would have taken Mike Leach in a heartbeat because they weren't just wins, they were big wins. They were exciting wins and darn fun to watch. Who else had ever put 70 points on Nebraska? And there were times we were behind but never out. Reference previous bowl game. It made us say, so what if we are 30 points behind...we still have 5 minutes!! And we saw that win happen over and over and we started to believe. We had hope.
Then the crap with Mike Leach went down. I'm not going to rehash it but will say Gerald Myers was an asshole and Kent Hance's puppet. So they fired him and went after Gerald's old friend Tommy Tuberville. He'd been at Ole Miss and Auburn...SEC schools where defense is king. They actually play for the lowest score in the SEC I think. It works in golf but Tech fans wanted none of that. We'd seen the excitement and did not want to go back to be the team on our faces in the end zone with the winning play 6 inches away.
TT said in an interview last night that Tech was not a good fit. You got that right...A 20-17 record over 3 years is not a good fit. Not anymore. Leaving recruits at a table while you accept another job? Never a good fit. A low class move. Blindsiding your AD and accepting another job and leaving town withing 24 hours? Not cool. I read he said he was not offered the job til Saturday afternoon but we were in a Lubbock restaurant at noon and everyone was talking about it so that is not truthful. So yeah, a losing coach with no class and a faulty memory is not a good fit. But worse than that, Tuberville took the excitement out of our team, took their confidence in themselves, took my confidence in them. I had resigned myself to mediocrity again and I hate that. I went to bed last night when Tech was losing but again set the recorder. You see, I didn't believe anymore. Tuberville had sucked the life out of our team and I felt like his stench was still on them. I was pleasantly surprised and very proud of our team as they came back to win the game. And I'm sad that I doubted. Sorry team. It won't happen again.
Now we have a new, young coach in his first coaching job. Remember Klif Kingsbury? He's the man who was the QB coach for this year's Heisman winner. He brought Mike Leach's system to life. He loves this University. He wants to be here. And he will bring the excitement of the game again.
Tommy Tuberville, I hope you fail at Cincinnati. Miserably.
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