With a 10-point, fourth-quarter comeback, Texas Tech came back to beat Texas on Black Friday, 27-23. The Red Raiders finish their season 6-6, and will play in a bowl game after the win (they didn’t have the APR score to get in at 5-7).
Texas Tech beats Texas, and maybe Kliff Kingsbury just saved his job?
Kingsbury might have just bought himself another year in Lubbock.
Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
That’s not a very Texas Tech score line. Things didn’t end up with both teams in the 50s in a wild shootout. This is a game Texas Tech typically doesn’t win under Kingsbury recently, a backs-against-the-wall effort that they had to have.
Kliff Kingsbury never seemed squarely on the hot seat. Not in the way guys like Mike Riley or Bret Bielema are on the hot seat. Kliff’s tenure just seemed like it was a redux of great offense and not-so-great defense as a recurring theme. You could certainly see a reality where Kingsbury was let go because his teams showed no progress, and that might still happen. But it may be a bit harder to justify after this season’s progress.
This is how our season preview set the scene for Kingsbury’s fourth season.
After going 8-5 in his first year (with his worst offense to date, no less), Kingsbury has since gone just 16-21. The 2016 season was his second bowl-free campaign in three years. His status as a Tech legend has earned him a little more rope than another coach might get, but he’s stretched that rope out pretty far. His offense will remain prolific despite the loss of first-round quarterback Pat Mahomes II, but he and defensive coordinator David Gibbs have to rebuild their defensive line and hope injury was the primary cause for Tech’s dreadful pass defense.
It seems like they’ve done that and made a unit that can at least hold its own. They’re not the Steel Curtain of the 1970s, but they’ve kept the Red Raiders in games last year, which is much more than can be said of years past.
For what it’s worth, Kingsbury’s boss wasn’t effusive with his praise, but this certainly doesn’t read like he’s definitely out.
For a program like Texas Tech, hitting the reset button every few years isn’t optimal. Is the progress shown enough to keep Kingsbury around? We’ll see.
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