RIP Texas Tech Offense

The year was 1999. I was a freshman at Texas Tech University. The first game I went to was No. 5 Texas A&M vs. an unranked Texas Tech on a regular night. Oh my how the two schools have changed!  Spike Dykes roamed the sidelines, Ricky Williams was injured, and an unknown fullback named Sammy Morris pounded the A&M defense. It was a spectacular sight, 21-19.

That was the last year of Spike Dykes. I read all the articles talking about Tech using a search firm to find a new coach. Enter Mike Leach. Now before you read any further, this is NOT a pro-Leach article, nor is it an anti-Tuberville article.

When I first started at Tech, the stadium was ugly, we were always considered third tier to Texas and A&M. Both students of mentioned universities bad mouthed us and considered us inferior to their power house football teams.

What changed over the years was Leach brought and attitude and swagger that was needed by the Tech faithful. We were defined with his passing attack (no matter how poorly it looked in his first season versus North Texas).  

Leach is gone, Tubberville is in. I am a fan of both. However, I am going to cut to the chase and explain my headline and photo. The photo was the only one I could find in the search and I didn't want to go searching for another. Two, the headline IMHO is true.

Tubbs wants to bring in an "SEC style defense." OK, I am all for that! But what Tech relied on in the past was Leach spending the majority of his time working with the offense, QBs and assistant coaches. That determination and fervor is what led to Tech having such swagger and attitude.

Now you cannot spend the majority of your time (as a head coach) on defense and expect the offense to just keep on ticking. Point-in-case... Nebraska. Nebraska's offense was stellar when Pelini took over.... it was the defense that was terrible. Now Nebraska has an incredible defense and a poor offense. You have to choose your poison .. and Tubbs choice is defense.

This won't be an instant change, it will be subtle. But when you sacrifice one over the other you lose something. The teams that can do both have incredible talent...which Tech DOES NOT HAVE.

All in all, I appreciated Leach for making Tech seem relevant and defining us. I hope we never lose our swagger and maybe in five years we are known for a smash mouth defense. But for what put us on the map—the 90 percent passing—is gone. But that doesn't mean the spirit is (I hope not!)

First article, thanks for reading.