The Texas Tech Red Raiders enter Friday night's Meineke Car Care Bowl at Houston's Reliant Stadium against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in a bit of a funk.
The team is coming off of a tough 52-45 overtime loss against Baylor in the regular-season finale and has lost four of the past five games to end the year. Making matters even more chaotic, the Red Raiders were forced to hop on the college coaching carousel after head coach Tommy Tuberville left for Cincinnati.
Texas Tech brought in a familiar face to turn things around after a disappointing 7-5 season, hiring former Red Raiders quarterback Kliff Kinsbury to take over the program. Kingsbury was quarterback for head coach Mike Leach from 1999 to 2002 and threw for 12,429 yards and 95 touchdowns in four seasons. Interim coach Chris Thomsen will lead the team in the bowl game.
"It's just been a whirlwind but I couldn't be happier, beyond ecstatic to be back. It feels like home," Kingsbury said to the Associated Press. "This is where I wanted to be, it's where I've wanted to be."
The Texas Tech has been the most explosive passing team in college football this season and is making their fourth consecutive bowl appearance in their home state of Texas. Quarterback Seth Doege has been stellar this year, passing for 3,934 yards and 38 touchdowns and 14 interceptions while completing over 70 percent of his passes.
The high-powered Red Raiders were ranked second in the nation in passing with 361 yards per game and are scoring 37 points per contest. The defense has vastly improved from last year, ranking 39th overall after coming in at 114th last season. The Red Raiders are also ranked in the top 25 against the pass, allowing just 195.6 yards per game.
Texas Tech will look to break out of a year-end funk that saw the team give up over 110 points in the final two weeks in back-to-back losses. The only victory for the Red Raiders over the past five games came on Nov. 10 in a 41-34 overtime win against a 1-11 Kansas team.
Texas Tech gave up at least 52 points in four of their last six games and will need ot eb careful not to let the game get away from them if the offense isn't clicking.
"I feel like all the losses we took this year, the tough losses, we never got down," said receiver Darrin Moore. "We came back the next day ready to work. We never held our heads low. We came back and we got right back at it."
Minnesota will try to force Texas Tech to abandon the passing game using a defensive unit that is only giving up 178 yards through the air per game. Something will have to give on Friday night, as the Red Raiders are one of the most efficient passing offenses in the country.
Doege has thrown five interceptions in the past two games, but he has been fantastic otherwise, throwing for 359 yards and three touchdowns in the regular-season finale against Baylor. Earlier this season he had a career-high six touchdown passes against New Mexico and threw for a season-high 499 yards in a 49-14 win on Oct. 13 over West Virginia.
Wide receivers Eric Ward and Moore have been the biggest beneficiaries to playing with Doege, combining to score 24 touchdowns. Moore, the senior, is leading the team with 81 receptions for 948 yards and 13 touchdowns, while Ward has made 75 catches for 974 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Although the Red Raiders are ranked just 89th in rushing, running back Kenny Williams has been a consistent presence in the backfield, rushing for 779 yards and five touchdowns. He has also made 14 receptions for 135 yards and one touchdown. The Red Raiders rank 12th in the nation in total yards and will give the Gophers a lot to handle on Friday night.
Minnesota hopes that the bowl matchup against Texas Tech goes better this year than when the two teams last met in the 2006 Insight Bowl. The Golden Gophers had a 38-7 third-quarter lead, but squandered it to the Red Raiders before losing 44-41 in overtime to give up the biggest comeback in Division I history.
Head coach Jerry Kill will try to move on from that past matchup as Minnesota enters the college postseason for the first time since 2009. The team hasn't won a bowl game since 2004 and improved to 6-6 after a tough 3-9 year last season.
"We've been through some hard times," senior defensive back Troy Stoudermire said. "Coach Kill did a great job getting us back bowl eligible."
Minnesota has been in a bit of a funk to finish the season, dropping two straight, including a 26-10 loss to Michigan State to end the regular season. The team went just 2-6 in the Big Ten this year and are ranked 114th in the nation in total offense with 317 yards per game, almost as much as the Red Raiders gain through the air.
The Golden Gophers will have a tough time on Friday on offense, as top wide receiver A.J. Barker will not be playing after he left the team in November after bringing up allegations of mistreatment by Kill. At the time, Barker was leading the team with 30 receptions for 577 yards and seven touchdowns.
Minnesota will rely on inexperienced freshman Philip Nelson, who took over the starting job in October. Nelson had led the team to a 2-4 record in his starts and has passed for 735 yards and six touchdowns with seven interceptions. He hasn't thrown a touchdown in the past three games and has been picked off five times during that span.
The Texas Tech defense shouldn't have too much trouble against Minnesota, but the roster will be without three players, as defensive back Cornelius Douglas, linebacker Chris Payne and defensive tackle Leon Mackey were all suspended by the school for the bowl game. The Red Raiders will rely on senior Cody Davis, who leads the team with three interceptions, and junior Dartwan Bush, who is tied for the lead with 5.0 sacks.
PREDICTION: Texas Tech 48, Minnesota 24. Neither team, really has momentum entering the game, but one side has an advantage, it's Texas Tech. Doege is a senior quarterback with weapons all over the place, while Nelson is a freshman who is leading an offense that scores just 21 points per game. The Minnesota defense has been solid, allowing 23 points per game, but the gophers haven't seen an offense as high-powered as Texas Tech this season. Although the Red Raiders have lost their head coach and will lose their offensive coordinator following the bowl game, this is a contest they should win easily barring any major injuries.