Texas Tech Red Raiders football

NCAAFootballSchool
TeamName = Texas Tech University football


ImageSize =
CurrentSeason = 2008 Texas Tech Red Raiders football
HeadCoachDisplay = Mike Leach
HeadCoachLink = Mike Leach
HeadCoachYear = 9th
HCWins = 69
HCLosses = 37
HCTies =
Stadium = Jones AT&T Stadium
StadCapacity = 53,000
StadSurface = FieldTurf
Location = Lubbock, Texas
ConferenceDisplay= Big 12
ConferenceLink = Big 12 Conference
ConfDivision = South
FirstYear = 1925
AthlDirectorDisp = Gerald Myers
AthlDirectorLink = Gerald Myers
WebsiteName = Texas Tech Red Raiders
WebsiteURL = http://texastech.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/text-m-footbl-body.html
ATWins = 486
ATLosses = 383
ATTies = 32
ATPercentage = .557
BowlWins = 10
BowlLosses = 20
BowlTies = 1
NatlTitles =
ConfTitles = 11
Heismans =
AllAmericans = 26 (First-team only) [cite web|title=Texas Tech All-Americans|url=http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/text/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/All-Americans.pdf|accessdate=2006-12-31|format=PDF 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.]
Color1 = Scarlet
Color1Hex = CC0000
Color2 = Black
Color2Hex = 000000
FightSong = Fight, Raiders, Fight
MascotDisplay = The Masked Rider /
Raider Red
MarchingBand = Goin' Band from RaiderlandThe 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.cite web|title=Texas Tech Football History Database|url=http://www.nationalchamps.net/NCAA/database/texastech_database.htm|accessdate=2006-12-31]

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.cite web|title=Texas Tech A-to-Z
url=http://texastech.cstv.com/trads/text-m-fb-atoz.html|accessdate=2006-12-31]

Over his four years, Freeland coached the team, known at the time as the Matadors, 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 Higginbotham in 1930 and led the team for the next eleven seasons. His winning percentage of .693 has not been surpassed at Texas Tech. [As of January 1, 2008.]

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 first joined a conference, the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association, which included five other schools at the time. Several other firsts occurred during Cawthon's tenure. In 1934, the team was first referred to as the "Red Raiders". [ [http://media.www.dailytoreador.com/media/storage/paper870/news/2003/03/13/LifeLeisure/Making.Matadors-1276232.shtml Making Matadors] ] Three years later, the 1937 squad became the first team in college football to fly to a game. [Citation|last=Sherrington|first=Kevin|author-link= |title=Red Dawn|newspaper=Dave Campbell's Texas Football|pages=17|year=2008|date= | url= ] Later that year, they received their first postseason invite—to the 1937 Sun Bowl, where they were defeated by West Virginia, 6–7. The following year, Cawthon led the team, which is the only one in the program's history to have an undefeated regular season, to the Cotton Bowl where they lost to St. Mary's, 13–20. [cite web|title=Traditions: Texas Tech Hall of Honor|publisher=Texas Tech Athletics|url=http://texastech.cstv.com/trads/hoh-ad.html|accessdate=2008-08-16] Cawthon's 1939 team set a still-unbroken NCAA record for most punts during a single game. Playing in a driving rainstorm, Texas Tech punted 39 times, while their opponent, Centenary punted 38 times. The combined punt total of 77 is also an unbroken NCAA record. [cite web|title=Texas Tech: Countdown to Kickoff|publisher=NCAA|date=2008-08-08|url=http://www.ncaa.com/football/article.aspx?id=301794|accessdate=2008-08-16]

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:

cquote|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."cite web|title=A history of one of Texas Tech's Oldest and Best-Loved Traditions| work=Texas Tech Center for Campus Life
url=http://www.campuslife.ttu.edu/MaskedRider/history.asp|accessdate=2008-01-01]

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. [ [http://www.redraiders.com/techs75th/athletics.htm Athletics - Texas Tech Turns 75] ]

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. One of the wins under King was on September 18, 1965, when the Red Raiders beat Kansas, 26–7, in the first intercollegiate football game to use instant video replay. [cite web|title=Sport's Illustrated 50th Anniversary: Statitudes|publisher="Sports Illustrated"|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/magazine/features/si50/states/texas|accessdate=2008-08-16] King led 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. [cite web|url=http://www.redraiders.com/stories/090507/foo_090507006.shtml|title=Moore finds success that was elusive at Tech|accessdate=2008-01-04]

1986–present

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. [ [http://kansasstate.rivals.com/barrier_noentry.asp?sid=889&script=/content.asp&cid=680485&fid=&tid=&mid= Entry Not allowed ] ]

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. [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=263630135 ESPN - Down 31, Texas Tech rallies for biggest bowl comeback - NCAA College Football Recap ] ] 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). [ [http://www.redraiders.com/stories/051807/foo_051807012.shtml Texas Tech Sports presented by The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal ] ] [ [http://texastech.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/101107aaa.html Football Grad Rates Among Top 10 :: Graduation Success Rate (GSR) for Red Raider program second in BCS public comparisons ] ] [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/bowls07/news/story?id=3140015 ESPN - Nearly three of four bowl teams meet minimum NCAA academic mark - College Football ] ] 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. [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2947981 ESPN - Middling major conference teams, top mid-majors among Nos. 26-50 - College Football ] ] 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). [ [http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/090307/col_090307027.shtml LubbockOnline.com - Texas Tech-SMU game facts 09/03/07 ] ]

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. [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=2949643 ESPN - Teams just outside top 25 include big names, underachieving programs - College Football ] ]

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. [ [http://texastech.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/sched/text-m-footbl-sched.html Football - Texas Tech Red Raiders :: The Official Athletic Site ] ] Texas Tech defeated the Mustangs, 49–9. [ [http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/colleges/topstories/stories/090407dnsposmubriefs.329f7cf.html Tech's defense has the answer | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | SportsDay: Colleges: Top Stories ] ] 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. [ [http://media.www.dailytoreador.com/media/storage/paper870/news/2007/09/24/Sports/Defensive.Coordinator.Steps.Down-2985434.shtml Defensive coordinator steps down - Sports] ] 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. [ [http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=389286 Texas Tech, Okla. State to play in Dallas] ]

Conferences

The football team has been affiliated with the following conferences:
* 1925-1931 – Independent (no conference affiliation)
* 1932-1956 – Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association
* 1957-1959 – Independent (no conference affiliation)
* 1960-1995 – Southwest Conference
* 1996-present – Big 12 Conference (South Division)

Championship history

Conference championships (11)

Player accomplishments

Awards

*Sammy Baugh Trophy - Quarterback:Kliff Kingsbury, 2002:B.J. Symons, 2003:Graham Harrell, 2007
*Fred Biletnikoff Award - Wide receiver:Michael Crabtree, 2007
*Doak Walker Award - Running back:Bam Morris, 1993:Byron Hanspard, 1996
*Mosi Tatupu Award - Special teams:Wes Welker, 2003

Red Raiders in the NFL

As of June 2008, 12 Red Raiders currently play in the NFL. [cite web|url=http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/college?letter=t|title=NFL Players By College - T|accessdate=2008-06-24|publisher=ESPN]
*Danny Amendola, WR, Dallas Cowboys
*Keyunta Dawson, DE, Indianapolis Colts
*Joel Filani, WR, Seattle Seahawks
*Dylan Gandy, OG, Denver Broncos
*Joselio Hanson, CB, Philadelphia Eagles
*Daniel Loper, OL, Tennessee Titans
*Sammy Morris, FB, New England Patriots
*Manuel Ramirez, OL, Detroit Lions
*Montae Reagor, DT, Philadelphia Eagles
*Mike Smith, LB, Baltimore Ravens
*Zach Thomas, LB, Dallas Cowboys
*Wes Welker, WR, New England Patriots

References

External links

* [http://texastech.cstv.com/ Texas Tech Athletics]
* [http://swco.ttu.edu/university_archive/ttusports.html Sports holdings at the Texas Tech University Archives]
* [http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/features/special/college-football_home PBS "Nightly Business Report" featuring Texas Tech football]