Gameday: The Final Stretch
November 19, 2011 | Football
Texas Tech will look secure bowl-eligibility Saturday afternoon in Columbia, Mo.
Game Day Central | Texas Tech Notes | Missouri Notes | Current Columbia Weather
Nov. 19, 2011
by Britton Drown
Texas Tech Athletics Communications
Two games. The Red Raiders have just two games remaining on their regular season schedule, with the first of those set for Saturday afternoon in Columbia, Mo.
In the next two weeks they will have the opportunity to rediscover who they are. With a win on Saturday over Missouri, Texas Tech will become bowl eligible for a Big 12 record 19th consecutive season, and maybe push the frustration of the past month aside--if only just slightly.
"We have two great opportunities left," junior quarterback Seth Doege said. "That's what we're going to focus on."
 | "We have two great opportunities left. That's what we're going to focus on." |
It has no doubt been a tough month for the Red Raiders. The team enters Saturday's game in the midst of a three-game losing streak, and has lost five of their last six games. That single win came in an upset effort at No. 1 ranked Oklahoma on Oct. 22.
The 41-38 win in Norman perhaps proved to be too difficult to come down from, and head coach Tommy Tuberville and his staff has spent the week mentally preparing the Red Raiders to focus on one game at a time as the season comes to a close.
"We just have to worry about ourselves," Tuberville said. "We've got to find some way to regain confidence after three games that were just not very good on coaching or playing."
During that three-game skid, Tuberville's Red Raiders have been outscored 159-33. Last week, Tech suffered its worst loss in program history as Oklahoma State defeated the Red Raiders 66-6 at Jones AT&T Stadium.
"It wasn't the team that we are that showed up," Doege said.
That's exactly what Doege and the Red Raiders will look to prove Saturday.
Missouri enters the match up fresh off a 17-5 win over No. 21 Texas in Columbia where they held the Longhorns to just 247 yards of total offense. The Tigers are led offensively by junior receiver T.J. More who has 11 receptions of over 20 yards, and four touchdowns on the season.
Meanwhile, sophomore quarterback James Franklin, a first-year starter, ranks 15th in the country in total offense averaging 302.3 yards per game this season.
On Saturday afternoon, Texas Tech will look for its fourth road victory on the season, and their first since the upset win at Oklahoma on Oct. 22. The Red Raiders will look to Doege to help get them back on track. The junior ranks eighth in the country in total offense, averaging 337.4 yards per game.
How will they do it? Tuberville and the coaching staff focused on regaining the Red Raiders' confidence this week. The first-year head coach feels doing just that, may get his squad back on track during the final two-game stretch of the season.
"The biggest thing this week is to make it fun," Tuberville said. "And get them to the game where they've got that energy to play with passion."
