Yes, two were losses, but it's still nice publicity to have Tech featured in three of ESPN's top 25.
https://www.espn.com/college-footba...tant-games-college-football-spread-revolution
Nov. 1, 2008: Texas Tech 39, Texas 33
Quick word-association game: When I say "four verticals," what do you think of? The odds are pretty good you thought, "Harrell to Crabtree."
In his ninth season at Texas Tech, Mike Leach found a breakthrough. With a blue-chip quarterback (Graham Harrell) and the best receiver in college football (Michael Crabtree), the Red Raiders began 2008 10-0, thanks in part to this classic. They raced to a 19-0 lead against top-ranked Texas, but the Longhorns clawed back and took a 33-32 lead with 89 seconds remaining. Eighty-eight seconds later, Crabtree scored running Four Verticals, maybe the single most enduring and devastating route combination of the era.
Tech rose to second in the polls and demolished No. 8 Oklahoma State to set up what would become a winner-take-all matchup against Oklahoma for the Big 12 South crown.
Nov. 22, 2008: Oklahoma 65, Texas Tech 21
In 2002, Kevin Wilson left Northwestern to take the offensive co-coordinator job at Oklahoma. He became solo OC a few years later, and in 2008 his Sooners attack went on the most devastating offensive run to date.
"I remember Kirk Herbstreit called me in the preseason," Wilson says, "and I said, listen, we're going to do this no-huddle stuff, but we're going to be different. We're not going to be like Northwestern and going spread all the time. I got Jermaine Gresham, and he's gonna play both in the slot and at tight end. I got DeMarco Murray, he's gonna play tailback and play in the slot. I got this kid named Brody Eldridge, and he's gonna play fullback and tight end. I'm gonna go from big to little without substituting, and I'm gonna go fast as crap. I think we've got a chance to be kind of different."
Everything current-day offensive coordinators are attempting to do, mixing formations and tempos to create mismatches, the 2008 Sooners did in droves. They averaged 48 points per game through eight games, then somehow found another gear, scoring 60-plus for five consecutive weeks. (It could have been six straight, as Wilson points out: "We were beating Kansas State 55-3 at halftime, but we just kicked a field goal in the second half.")
This was the buzz saw Tech ran into late in 2008. "Let me tell you about Mike [Leach]'s teams," Wilson says. "When Mike's teams are good, they're physical and they're dirty and they play great, and that was a damn good team. They were a really hot team, and we were just the hotter team. With the no-huddle and the spread -- kinda like the [UNLV] Runnin' Rebels in basketball -- if you get cold sometimes you can look pretty damn bad, but when you're running ... when you get hot ... it can be fun." A spectacular understatement.
Oct. 22, 2016: Oklahoma 66, Texas Tech 59
By the mid-2010s, spread principles such as tempo and the zone read had long since become part of the fabric of the sport, and RPOs were taking over, to the extent that even a seemingly old-school team like Penn State was riding them to a Big Ten title. But the Big 12 was still figuring out ways to push the envelope, never more than in this ridiculous quarterback battle between Oklahoma's future No. 1 pick Baker Mayfield and Texas Tech's future NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes.
Mayfield threw for 545 yards and seven touchdowns, the Sooners' Joe Mixon gained 377 combined rushing and receiving yards and Dede Westbrook caught nine balls for 202. On the other side of the field, Mahomes completed 52 of 88 passes and was credited with 85 rushing yards. The teams combined for 185 snaps and 1,702 yards (exactly 854 each), and OU basically won because it scored touchdowns on its final six possessions, while Tech did so on only its final five. When you combine unmatched offensive talent with nearly perfect offensive schemes (and, yes, a lack of matching defensive talent), this is what happens.
https://www.espn.com/college-footba...tant-games-college-football-spread-revolution
Nov. 1, 2008: Texas Tech 39, Texas 33
Quick word-association game: When I say "four verticals," what do you think of? The odds are pretty good you thought, "Harrell to Crabtree."
In his ninth season at Texas Tech, Mike Leach found a breakthrough. With a blue-chip quarterback (Graham Harrell) and the best receiver in college football (Michael Crabtree), the Red Raiders began 2008 10-0, thanks in part to this classic. They raced to a 19-0 lead against top-ranked Texas, but the Longhorns clawed back and took a 33-32 lead with 89 seconds remaining. Eighty-eight seconds later, Crabtree scored running Four Verticals, maybe the single most enduring and devastating route combination of the era.
Tech rose to second in the polls and demolished No. 8 Oklahoma State to set up what would become a winner-take-all matchup against Oklahoma for the Big 12 South crown.
Nov. 22, 2008: Oklahoma 65, Texas Tech 21
In 2002, Kevin Wilson left Northwestern to take the offensive co-coordinator job at Oklahoma. He became solo OC a few years later, and in 2008 his Sooners attack went on the most devastating offensive run to date.
"I remember Kirk Herbstreit called me in the preseason," Wilson says, "and I said, listen, we're going to do this no-huddle stuff, but we're going to be different. We're not going to be like Northwestern and going spread all the time. I got Jermaine Gresham, and he's gonna play both in the slot and at tight end. I got DeMarco Murray, he's gonna play tailback and play in the slot. I got this kid named Brody Eldridge, and he's gonna play fullback and tight end. I'm gonna go from big to little without substituting, and I'm gonna go fast as crap. I think we've got a chance to be kind of different."
Everything current-day offensive coordinators are attempting to do, mixing formations and tempos to create mismatches, the 2008 Sooners did in droves. They averaged 48 points per game through eight games, then somehow found another gear, scoring 60-plus for five consecutive weeks. (It could have been six straight, as Wilson points out: "We were beating Kansas State 55-3 at halftime, but we just kicked a field goal in the second half.")
This was the buzz saw Tech ran into late in 2008. "Let me tell you about Mike [Leach]'s teams," Wilson says. "When Mike's teams are good, they're physical and they're dirty and they play great, and that was a damn good team. They were a really hot team, and we were just the hotter team. With the no-huddle and the spread -- kinda like the [UNLV] Runnin' Rebels in basketball -- if you get cold sometimes you can look pretty damn bad, but when you're running ... when you get hot ... it can be fun." A spectacular understatement.
Oct. 22, 2016: Oklahoma 66, Texas Tech 59
By the mid-2010s, spread principles such as tempo and the zone read had long since become part of the fabric of the sport, and RPOs were taking over, to the extent that even a seemingly old-school team like Penn State was riding them to a Big Ten title. But the Big 12 was still figuring out ways to push the envelope, never more than in this ridiculous quarterback battle between Oklahoma's future No. 1 pick Baker Mayfield and Texas Tech's future NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes.
Mayfield threw for 545 yards and seven touchdowns, the Sooners' Joe Mixon gained 377 combined rushing and receiving yards and Dede Westbrook caught nine balls for 202. On the other side of the field, Mahomes completed 52 of 88 passes and was credited with 85 rushing yards. The teams combined for 185 snaps and 1,702 yards (exactly 854 each), and OU basically won because it scored touchdowns on its final six possessions, while Tech did so on only its final five. When you combine unmatched offensive talent with nearly perfect offensive schemes (and, yes, a lack of matching defensive talent), this is what happens.
