The Texas Tech Red Raiders football program is a college football team that represents Texas Tech University (variously "TTU"). The Red Raiders compete as a member of the Big 12 Conference, which is a Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The program began in 1925 and has an overall winning record, including a total of 12 conference titles and one conference division title. On November 8, 2021, Joey McGuire was hired as the team's 17th head football coach, replacing Matt Wells, who was fired in the middle of the 2021 season. Home games are played at Galaxy Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.

History

Texas Tech (then known as Texas Technological College) fielded its first intercollegiate football team during the 1925 season. The team was known as the "Matadors" from 1925 to 1936, a name suggested by the wife of E. Y. Freeland, the first football coach, to reflect the influence of the Spanish Renaissance architecture on campus. In 1932, Texas Tech joined the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, also known as the Border Conference. The school's short-lived Matadors moniker was replaced officially in 1937 with "Red Raiders", a nickname bestowed upon them by a sportswriter impressed by their bright scarlet uniforms that remains to this day. That same year, the team won its first conference championship and was invited to the Sun Bowl. The game was played on January 1, 1938, and resulted in a 7–6 loss to the West Virginia Mountaineers. Texas Tech suffered four more bowl losses before their first postseason win in the 1952 Sun Bowl. Before withdrawing from the Border Conference in 1956, the Red Raiders won eight conference championships and one co-championship, the most held by a Border Conference member.

In 1956, Texas Tech was admitted to the Southwest Conference (SWC), but was ineligible for any title during a four-year probationary period. It gained full SWC membership and began official conference play in 1960. The Red Raiders won conference co-championships in 1976 and 1994. The team remained in the SWC until the conference dissolved in 1996. The university was invited and became a charter member in the South Division of the Big 12 Conference. Texas Tech was the only member of the Big 12 to boast a winning record every year from the conference's formation in 1996 through end 2010. In 2003, Texas Tech was the only team to ever have 5 or more players with at least 60 receptions in a single season. In 2008, the Red Raiders were one of three football teams involved in the first three way conference division tie. In 1932, Texas Tech played their only contest against Notre Dame, beating the Fighting Irish 32-0.

Conference affiliations Texas Tech has competed as a member of three different conferences since 1925.

Independent (1925–1931, 1957–1959) Border Conference (1932–1956) Southwest Conference (1960–1995) Big 12 Conference (1996–present) South Division (1996–2010)

Championships Conference championships The Red Raiders have won 12 conference championships, as members of three different conferences, most recently as the winner of the 2025 Big 12 Championship Game. These include nine as a member of the Border Conference, two as a member of the Southwest Conference, and one as a member of the Big 12 Conference.

1937 Border Conference Pete Cawthon 8–4 3–0 1942† Dell Morgan 4–5–1 4–0 1947 6–4 4–0 1948 7–3 5–0 1949 7–5 5–0 1951 DeWitt Weaver 7–4 5–0 1953 11–1 5–0 1954 7–2–1 4–0 1955 7–3–1 3–0–1 1976† Southwest Conference Steve Sloan 10–2 7–1 1994† Spike Dykes 6–6 4–3 2025 Big 12 Conference Joey McGuire 12–1 8–1 † Co-championship

Division championships The Red Raiders were previously members of the Big 12 between its inception in 1996 and the dissolution of conference divisions within the Big 12 in 2011. They won one division championship during that span, sharing it with Oklahoma and Texas in 2008.

2008† Big 12 South Mike Leach 11–2 7–1 N/A lost tie-breaker to Oklahoma † Co-championship

Head coaches

Texas Tech has had 17 head coaches, and three-interim head coaches. Six coaches have won conference championships with the Red Raiders: Pete Cawthon, Dell Morgan, DeWitt Weaver, Steve Sloan, Spike Dykes, and Joey McGuire. Mike Leach is the only head Texas Tech football coach to win a division title. Dykes is the all-time leader in games and years coached, while Leach is the all-time leader in overall wins. Higginbotham is, in terms of winning percentage, the worst coach the Red Raiders have had; winning only one game while losing seven, and tying two, giving him a .200 winning percentage. Cawthon's .693 winning percent ranks as the highest among the coaches.

Morgan, Weaver, Dykes, and Leach have each received Coach of the Year honors from at least one organization. Morgan was named Border Conference Coach of the Year in 1949. Twice—in 1951 and 1953—Weaver was named the Border Conference's Coach of the Year. Dykes was named Southwest Conference Coach of the Year in 1989 and two other years. Dykes was also named the first Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year in 1996. In 2008, Leach was the second Texas Tech head coach to be named Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year. The same season, Leach was also named the FieldTurf/Howie Long Coach of the Year and was awarded the Woody Hayes Trophy and George Munger Award; all three awards recognize the top collegiate coach of the season. Kliff Kingsbury became the first Big 12 Conference coach to begin his career with 7 wins in 2013.

Bowl games

Texas Tech has played in 43 postseason bowl games with an all-time record of 17 wins, 25 losses, and 1 tie. The Red Raiders rank third among current Big 12 Conference programs in bowl game appearances, and also boasted the distinction of being the only program in the conference to be bowl eligible every season from its formation in 1996 through the 2010 season. The 42 bowl game appearances by the Red Raiders tie the program at 22nd in all-time in bowl games played and 31st in all-time bowl wins. Only 4 head coaches, E. Y. Freeland, Grady Higginbotham, Rex Dockery, and Jerry Moore, did not lead Texas Tech to a postseason bowl game. Although both Pete Cawthon and Dell Morgan had led the program to previous bowl games, neither posted wins in their five combined appearances.

The Red Raiders' fans have set attendance records at 10 bowl games, including the team's first bowl game appearance in the 1938 Sun Bowl. Although eight of the 10 attendance records were eventually broken, attendance records from 2 bowl game appearances, the 2004 Pacific Life Holiday Bowl and 2009 AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic, remain unbroken. The 2009 AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic's attendance record of 88,175 was the second-most attended bowl game of the 2008–09 bowl game season.

Texas Tech's first bowl game was at the conclusion of the 1937 season, only 13 years after the program was established. The Red Raiders played in the 1938 Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, against the West Virginia Mountaineers on New Year's Day. Nine of Texas Tech's 39 bowl game bids have been to the Sun Bowl, the most appearances by any team to the second-oldest college football bowl game. In the 1952 Sun Bowl, DeWitt Weaver coached the Red Raiders to their first bowl victory, defeating the Pacific Tigers 25–14 .

The 2011 TicketCity Bowl occurred on January 1, 2011, when the Red Raiders won, 45–38, against the Northwestern Wildcats. The game was the team's 11th consecutive bowl appearance that began with the 2000 Galleryfurniture.com Bowl, in former head coach Mike Leach's first season. In 10 seasons, Mike Leach's 9 bowl game appearances and five wins are the most of any of the program's head coaches.

The 2012 Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas occurred on December 28, 2012, when the Red Raiders won, 34–31, against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The last time the two teams had met was during the 2006 Insight Bowl, in which Texas Tech completed the biggest comeback in bowl history. After falling behind 38–7 with 7:47 remaining in the third quarter, rallied to score 31 unanswered points to send the game to overtime. In the 2006 game, the Gophers scored a field goal in overtime, but the Red Raiders responded with a touchdown to win.

The 2013 National University Holiday Bowl occurred on December 30, 2013. This was Kliff Kingsbury's first season as head coach at Texas Tech. The Red Raiders won, 37–23, against the Arizona State Sun Devils. The last, and only other, time these two teams met was in 1999, in both teams' preseason opener despite both teams having been members of the Border Conference. In this Holiday Bowl meeting, the Red Raiders led the entire game, with the smallest lead of 7 points only lasting 11 seconds on the game clock, as Reginald Davis III returned a 90-yard kickoff for a touchdown, to answer the Sun Devils' Taylor Kelly's 44-yard touchdown run, early in the third quarter.

Of the most recent bowl games in the programs history are the 2022 TaxAct Texas Bowl, and the 2023 Independence Bowl. On December 28, 2022, the Red Raiders, led by head coach Joey McGuire, won 42–25 versus the former No. 9 Ole Miss Rebels led by coach Lane Kiffin. On December 16, 2023, the Red Raiders which were led by Joey McGuire in his second year as head coach for Texas Tech, won 34-14 against a 6-6 University of California team in the 23' Independence Bowl in Shreveport Louisiana, winning 2 consecutive bowl games in consecutive years for the program, which has not been done in the program since Mike Leach's 2002-04 campaigns.

Honors and achievements Retired numbers

Texas Tech Red Raiders retired numbers No. Player Pos. Tenure No. ret. Ref. 44 Donny Anderson RB 1963–1965 55 E.J. Holub C/LB 1958–1960 1961 81 Dave Parks SE 1961–1963

Ring of Honor In 2012, the Ring of Honor was established to recognize the most outstanding former players and coaches. An eleven-member selection committee screens candidates and a makes formal recommendation to the athletic director upon a unanimous vote. The inductees' names and numbers are displayed on the west side stadium building at Galaxy Stadium. As of 2025, twelve players have been inducted into the Ring of Honor, including the three former players with retired numbers.

Donny Anderson RB 1963–1965 2012 E. J. Holub C/LB 1958–1960 2012 Dave Parks SE 1961–1963 2012 Gabe Rivera DL 1979–1982 2014 Zach Thomas LB 1993–1995 2016 Michael Crabtree WR 2006–2008 2021 Elmer Tarbox HB/DB 1936–1938 2021 Patrick Mahomes II QB 2014–2016 2022 Thomas Howard LB 1974–1976 2024 Andre Tillman TE 1971–1973 2024 Wes Welker WR/PR 2000–2003 2024 Graham Harrell QB 2004–2008 2025

Individual honors

Many of Texas Tech's players have been recognized for their accomplishments while with the program. Seven Red Raider players, Donny Anderson, Hub Bechtol, Byron Hanspard, E. J. Holub, Dave Parks, Gabriel Rivera, and Zach Thomas, have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Anderson, Holub, and Parks are the only three players at Texas Tech to have had their numbers retired.

Two Red Raiders, Anderson in 1965 and Graham Harrell in 2008, have been named Sporting News College Football Player of the Year, which is bestowed upon the most outstanding college football player of that season by Sporting News. While no Texas Tech player has ever received the Heisman Trophy, seven Red Raiders have received votes by the award's selection committee. Donny Anderson and Graham Harrell both finished fourth in the voting in 1965 and 2008, respectively, the highest ranking a Red Raider has received from voters. Additionally, Michael Crabtree, Byron Hanspard, E. J. Holub, Kliff Kingsbury, and B. J. Symons were Heisman candidates, receiving enough votes to finish in the top 10.