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After Saturday’s loss to Baylor, Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt finally decided that Kliff Kingsbury’s time as Texas Tech head football coach had run out. Kingsbury’s six year tenure as head man was filled with highs and lows. Let us revisit some of the peaks of Kingsbury’s time as the Texas Tech head coach.
2013 Holiday Bowl victory
In Kilff’s first season as head coach, he led the Red Raiders to a 7-5 regular season record and a Holiday Bowl victory. In the 2013 Holiday Bowl, Texas Tech took down the heavily favored and #14 ranked Arizona State Sun Devils. In this game, Red Raider quarterback, Davis Webb lit up the ASU defense. Webb passed for 403 yards and tied a Holiday bowl record with four passing touchdowns.
2018 win in Stillwater
No doubt the pinnacle of the 2018 season. Texas Tech had not beaten Oklahoma State since 2008. The unlikely victory for Tech also marked their first victory over a top 15 team since 2011. The win provided a stage for Alan Bowman to introduce himself to the college football world. Bowman threw for 397 yards and two touchdowns. At this time, Tech was on three game win streak and it looked as if Kingsbury’s hot seat had cooled down.
Winning back-to-back games in Austin
Even though Kingsbury wasn’t able to get the job done against Texas this year, the two previous years that his Red Raiders traveled to Austin, they left with a victory. In the 2015 win, Tech won behind DeAndre Washington’s 173 rushing yards and two touchdowns. In the 2017 win, a late Douglas Coleman interception sealed the 27-23 victory for Tech.
The development of Patrick Mahomes
While I can’t name a specific moment, Patrick Mahomes is by far the greatest success of Kliff Kingsbury’s coaching career. Mahomes shredded Big 12 defenses during his time as the Texas Tech quarterback. During his college career, Mahomes passed for 11,252 yards and 93 touchdowns. In addition to that, Patrick Mahomes, at the moment, is a front runner for NFL MVP.
It’s obvious that Kliff Kingsbury had some great moments as the Tech head coach. But, Kirby Hocutt made it clear that he wants this program to be elite, unfortunately, Kingsbury failed to bring the program to the level that Hocutt wanted.