One more for the road

Texas Tech won’t be playing in a bowl game this season, but the Red Raiders say they won’t simply be playing out the string either.

A game against Texas is never meaningless in Tech’s eyes, and there’s an added incentive. Tech closes the football season Friday in Austin, where Kliff Kingsbury’s Tech teams won in 2015 and 2017.

The Red Raiders have never won three in a row on the Forty Acres.

“Well, they’d never won two in a row in Austin either, but we made that happen,” Tech tackle Travis Bruffy said Monday.

Tech has lost five of its past six games, four of the five by three points or fewer. Its bowl chances went down the drain Saturday with a 30-27 loss to Kansas State on senior night at Jones AT&T Stadium.

“Our bowl game will be this week in Austin,” Tech coach Matt Wells said, “and that’s how we’ll treat it for those guys. And our guys will be absolutely ready to go into Austin and compete with Texas.”

Bruffy, one of the Red Raiders’ seniors, said nothing in his college career tops beating Texas two years ago in Royal-Memorial Stadium. Tech won 27-23, rallying from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter on Nic Shimonek touchdown passes to T.J. Vasher with 11:29 left and to Cameron Batson with 1:47 to go.

Justus Parker set up the last touchdown by intercepting Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger and returning it 55 yards to the Texas 14-yard line.

“Celebrating with your teammates on the field after an emotional game like that,” Bruffy said, “is something I’ll always cherish. But yeah, that’s my favorite college memory, absolutely. I wish we were in a position where we could replicate that.”

Bruffy said he shared the joy of Tech’s beating Texas in 2015, even before he was on the team. At the time, he was committed to the Red Raiders, playing his senior season in high school.

The Tech tackle’s mother and an uncle went to Texas A&M and his father to Rice, “and another part of the family strayed off and went to University of Texas,” he said.

Jakeem Grant contributed two of the key plays to Tech’s 48-45 victory four years ago in Austin, catching a 65-yard touchdown pass and bolting 40 yards for a trick-play touchdown that made it a two-possession game with 2:41 left.

When those two plays unfolded, “I let my cousins have it,” Bruffy said. “I was all in their ear, wearing my scarlet and black prematurely and just all gung ho about it.

“So yeah, the past two times Tech’s gone down to Austin it’s been a pleasure, an enjoyable experience for me, and I hope this one follows suit as well.”

Texas has clinched bowl eligibility, but otherwise is not much happier than Tech with how the season’s played out. From a top-10 team early in the season, the Longhorns have sunk to 6-5 with four losses in their past six games.

Tech linebacker Riko Jeffers said winning for the third time in a row in Austin would take some of the sting off the past month and a half, when the Red Raiders lost two road games on the last play and their last two home games in squeakers as well.

“We have had a lot of tough losses,” Jeffers said, “but we still have a common goal and we still know that we can do better and represent the Double T better. It will pretty much propel us into next year and get everybody on the right mind track of knowing that we can compete and we can play with everybody.”

Who: Texas Tech at Texas

When: 11 a.m. Friday

Where: Royal-Memorial Stadium, Austin

Records: Texas Tech 4-7, 2-6 in the Big 12; Texas 6-5, 4-4

Line: Texas by 9 1/2

TV: FOX

Last game: Kansas State 30, Texas Tech 27; Baylor 24, Texas 10

Last meeting: Texas 41, Texas Tech 34 last year in Lubbock.

Fast fact: The visiting team has won the past five games in the series.

College football