LUBBOCK, Texas — Guns up, everyone. Please pose like that silly masked man on Texas Tech’s black steed and shoot down the notion the Red Raiders don’t belong in the rarified air of college football’s elite. They definitely belong. And, more importantly, they act like they belong.
No. 2 Texas Tech took its highest ranking in school history and showed a national television audience that it would not embarrass the Big 12 if it reached the BCS title game. And it just might embarrass the best college defenses in this nation. Its thoroughly ruthless 56-20 win Saturday over eighth-ranked Oklahoma State wasn’t just another standard Texas Tech passing clinic.
This was against a legitimate top 10 team, one that knocked off then-No. 3 Missouri on the road and nearly upset Texas in Austin. Against this quality of an opponent, one week after upsetting top-ranked Texas, Texas Tech showed the maturity and advancement it has made from an alleged gimmicky offense with no substance — not to mention no defense — into a legitimate national title contender.
“This says a lot,” quarterback Graham Harrell said. “That’s big. A lot of people probably felt we’d come out and lose. A lot of people thought we’d just ride that high from Texas and not be ready to play, but that’s what’s great about this team. We put games behind us.”
They also have so much ahead.
Need a primer on Texas Tech football, circa 2008? You Colorado Buffs, the ones who won here last year? You won’t recognize these masked men.
Harrell has the inside track on becoming the first Texas Tech Heisman Trophy winner, and his 40-of-50 passing for 456 yards and six touchdowns underlined that. So did seven touchdowns on seven straight possessions.
He has the best college receiver in the nation in Michael Crabtree. He turned his ballyhooed matchup with Dez Bryant into a rout with eight catches for 89 yards and three TDs. And Crabtree wasn’t even the top receiver on his team.
This is the best defense in the Mike Leach era. It leads the Big 12 and held the nation’s fifth-highest scoring offense to 25 points under its average and the seventh-best offense to 368 yards, 144 under its norm. The missing piece of Leach’s odd little puzzle is finally in place.
Texas Tech (10-0, 6-0 Big 12), with its best record in 70 years, is not the best team in the nation. Being the best defense in the Big 12 is like being the best opera singer in West Texas. However, you won’t convince Bryant, who short-armed a Zac Robinson bomb so badly he must have thought he heard an oncoming Buick.
But Texas Tech’s defense isn’t the issue that will tantalize fans across the country this month. It’s what mad scientist of a defensive coordinator can come up with a plan to stop an offense that looks like a seven-on-seven summer passing drill. Saturday night here may as well have been Odessa Permian vs. Sagebrush High.
OSU’s puny four-man rush couldn’t get within the 806 area code of Harrell. When OSU did blitz, he merely hit the 6-3 Crabtree, wide open on an 8-yard slant for a TD and a 35-14 lead.
“Sometimes you get on a roll,” Leach said. “And everybody starts working together and you start duplicating your efforts in a way that allows you to do that. You strive for that.”
Even if you’re a football purist, admit it. You want to see how Harrell and Texas Tech’s offense would do against Florida’s defense. Or Southern California’s. Or Alabama’s. No one has held it under 35 points yet.
With Penn State choking at Iowa on Saturday and the tomato cans left on USC’s schedule unable to lift its No. 7 ranking, it appears the BCS title game will be between the champs of the Big 12 and the SEC. Tech, which has a bye this week, is basically in the national round of 16. A win at No. 6 Oklahoma on Nov. 22 then at home against Baylor puts Tech against a Big 12 North team that won’t stand a chance in the Big 12 championship game.
So, America, do you believe it? The Red Raiders wonder.
“Every week we have something to prove,” Crabtree said. “Every team we play they seem to come up with something about us not having this or that.”
Oklahoma? You’re next. You’d better prove the Red Raiders wrong. Otherwise, a black steed will be galloping in Miami.
