In November 2008, Texas Tech beat Texas in Lubbock in one of the most memorable college football games of the century. The decisive play was a touchdown catch in the last minute by Michael Crabtree, who caught a back-shoulder throw near the front right pylon of the end zone to the left of the stadium’s main broadcast camera:
10 years later, Texas beat Texas Tech with MICHAEL CRABTREE REVENGE
Not the same stakes, but the same play.
The story of that catch, as told by then-Tech QB Graham Harrell:
If a defense has two deep safeties, the whole idea of four verts is to make one safety shadow two receivers. (Likewise, if the D is in cover 3, running two different receivers up the seams can can force the same kind of conflict.) But when you’re playing the 2008 Red Raiders, one of the receivers you have to cover is Crabtree.
“If I were them,” Harrell says, “I would’ve gone and put one guy right in Crab’s face and one guy about 10 yards on top of Crab and said, ‘You’re gonna throw it anywhere but here.’ But they didn’t do that.”
Fast-forward to Saturday, and Texas beat Texas Tech in the last minute with the same play:
And it was the same play:
Harrell confirmed the ‘08 play was four verts for the Red Raiders.
Texas receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey could’ve gone out of bounds after making the catch, just needing a field goal, but instead he stayed in bounds and scored.
Crabtree did the same:
“In my mind, I’m thinking, ‘Step out of bounds. We’re only down by one,’ because from there, I feel pretty good about kicking it. That’s basically an extra point. Just don’t run out the time and not get in,” Harrell says.
“But Crab had better plans.”
That ‘08 loss was devastating for UT. This one might not be quite as stinging for the Red Raiders, but it’ll still hurt like hell.
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