Texas Tech Football: Pivotal Point Of The Season

Well, I don’t know about y’all, but I am thankful that we have a bye week. That means that I will actually get some homework done this weekend. I know what you’re thinking “Homework? Please, it’s football season”. I know, I know.

Anyways, back to the point of this article. Even thought it might not seem like it, these next 2 weeks are going to be a critical time of the season. Hence the title. If y’all remember back to the the article that I wrote just a week ago, things panned out pretty nice, didn’t they? After Arizona State, we needed some key teams to lose, and we have since been gifted that. Those teams being Oklahoma, who dropped to 1-2 after being pulled apart by Ohio State, and Texas, who suffered their first loss at the hands of Cal lead by Davis Webb. Oh, how sweet that was to watch! The Big 12 has been the subject of some fluky calls lately, but nonetheless, Texas is now 2-1.

As for Tech, we are in a long 3 week stretch. If you are looking at your calendars with a puzzled look, I’m counting this week as already over. We are headed into a bye week, I wish it fell later in the season during Big 12 play, but beggars can’t be choosers. It will be nice to sit back and watch all the other games that are going on this weekend. I’m excited to be able to finally catch the night games. Then, Tech get’s ready to host Kansas on Thursday the 29th. I for one can’t wait for that game, weeknight games bring a different level of energy. The only downside is that you have to go to work the next day.

After that, Tech has the privilege of another long week to prepare before they make the trip to Manhattan. Here’s my point, these next 3 weeks could potentially set the tone for the rest of the season. I’m not one to usually assume things, because we all know what that does, but I assume we will take care of business against Kansas. I know we have had our struggles against them in recent years, but I’ll go ahead and chalk them up as a win for us. They are more like a speed bump. So, we have 3 solid weeks to buckle down and make whatever improvements are necessary to hopefully have a successful season. After this, there are no breaks, and no easy opponents.

Clearly Kansas and Kansas State are not the biggest games on our schedule, but this is the perfect time, and hopefully enough time for our defense to figure themselves out. I know most of y’all can’t begin to think this far ahead, but as for the conference race, our window is open. In fact, it’s wide open right now. All we need to do is execute week by week, and everything else will take care of its self.

Even though everyone is bashing on our defense, and rightfully so, I still think this season has a ton of potential. These long 3 weeks may be exactly what everyone needs to crank it up a few notches. Maybe we will come out on the other side of this looking like the team that we all thought we were going to be before this season started.

A lot can happen over that amount of time. We could be scratching our heads wondering if it is even possible to fix our defense, or we could end up praising Gibbs for the work that he has done. We won’t know until the time comes. As much as I want more Tech football, this is a good little break before the season really starts to heat up to diagnose the problems, and hopefully fix them.

As much as I like the thought of just finding a way to win, I would rather not see Tech have to out up 50+ points to do so. I know we are more than capable of putting 50 points on everyone we face, but it would be nice to have 30+ be enough.

I’m looking forward to this weekend. I’ll be able to watch the rest of the Big 12 and keep an eye on how everyone else is playing. I just hope our defense is using this extra time to do what the picture is portraying, fending off the haters.