Commentary: Raiders fishing for some late wins

Texas Tech isn’t throwing this fish back in the Big 12 pond. Not hardly.

The Red Raiders don’t want to hear about any cheap wins against a third-team true freshman quarterback, not after they experienced such frustration themselves for 1 ½ games earlier in the year.

Tech went on the road last Saturday to No. 16 Kansas, a place where Oklahoma, BYU and Central Florida have lost. The Raiders were ahead 10-0 when Kansas quarterback Jason Bean was hammered on a designed run and landed awkwardly on a bent leg at the end of the first quarter.

Enter true freshman Cole Ballard.

An emergency starter at quarterback, especially one with no college experience, is a thrill ride. Ask Tech. The Raiders had their own in October when Jake Strong had to step in after two injuries at the game’s most vital position.

Ballard, to be expected, struggled at times against the Raider rush, but also made some plays. Tech squandered two scoring chances to cushion a lead. The feisty freshman, with KU trailing 13-10, led the Jayhawks to a possible winning touchdown in the last minute.

It looked like what has been known through the years by many as Typical Tech, the uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, to find ways to blow opportunities. That Tech forced a Kansas field goal and a 13-13 tie with 26 seconds left seemed only to prolong the inevitable – that the Raiders would lose in overtime.

Tech quarterback Behren Morton and coach Joey McGuire had other ideas. This was an offense that had only one touchdown and 249 yards at that point. But Morton completed consecutive passes for 14, 16 and the big one of 33 yards to Jerand Bradley to the KU 12 with seven seconds left.

Gino Garcia then drilled a 30-yard field goal and Tech left Lawrence with yet another November victory under McGuire to even its record at 5-5.

Until the last 26 seconds, this had all the markings of yet another faceplant in what has been mostly a season of stumbles. That the offense mostly struggled and that KU had to use a freshman quarterback in a pinch had a few saying this win needed an asterisk.

Where then are the Tech asterisks? The Raiders true freshman quarterback Jake Strong got thrown to the wolves in October. He entered the game against Kansas State for an injured Morton, who was playing for an injured Tyler Shough. Strong threw three second-half interceptions and a 21-17 lead evaporated into a 38-21 loss.

The next game, at a bad BYU team, Strong threw three more interceptions in a 27-14 loss. That was on Oct. 21. That might be the Cougars’ last win. Nobody threw those losses back in the water, nobody gave Tech wins with the thought a 60% Morton might have won both games.

No, they all count equally, good and bad. It’s hard to win football games. No fishes thrown back. In fact, Tech is now fishing for at least one more win in games at home against Central Florida and at Texas to get bowl eligible.

A bowl seemed almost a given before the season when Tech, coming off an 8-5 season, was a trendy pick if not to win the Big 12 to at least finish in the top three. Then it was almost a given the Raiders would fall short of a bowl after the loss to BYU dropped them to 3-5. Tech needed to win at least three of its last four to get the requisite six wins.

Now Tech has won two games in a row, both in November. In McGuire’s two years, the Raiders are 5-1 in the final month of the season. How much significance can be attached to that is debatable.

One school of thought is McGuire’s teams tend to get better as the season goes along. That’s one reason the last time he was a head coach, at Cedar Hill High School in the D-FW metroplex, his teams won three state titles.

“We found a way to win,” McGuire said after the Kansas game. “I think that’s what it’s all about in November, just finding ways to win. Get you another one.”

Now they face talented but inconsistent Central Florida on Saturday, the first Saturday game in Lubbock in more than a month. UCF just crushed Oklahoma State, 45-3, after OSU defeated Oklahoma. The Knights almost beat OU in Norman, falling 31-29.

UCF also blew a 35-7 lead and fell to Baylor, 36-35, and had decisive 29- and 13-point losses to Kansas and West Virginia.

Tech has seen bouts of inconsistency and offensive stagnation as well as debilitating injuries. But to the Raiders credit they’re still battling with a bowl berth for the taking to salvage an underachieving season.

“When you’ve gone through the injuries and losses we’ve gone through this year, there’s a lot of locker rooms around the country that start splintering and pointing fingers,” McGuire said.

“It says a lot about the care factor our guys have, the belief they have in each other, to keep the locker room together and keep fighting. The more you do that, good things are going to happen.”

How much more good can the Raiders squeeze out late in the season?

Jon Mark Beilue writes about regional sports for The Eastern New Mexico News.