The 2022 Texas Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 28, 2022, at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas. The 16th annual Texas Bowl, the game featured Texas Tech from the Big 12 Conference and Ole Miss from the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The game began at 8:09p.m. CST and was aired on ESPN. It was one of the 2022–23 bowl games concluding the 2022 FBS football season. Sponsored by tax preparation software company TaxAct, the game was officially known as the TaxAct Texas Bowl.
Teams Consistent with conference tie-ins, the game featured teams from the Big 12 Conference and the Southeastern Conference (SEC).
This was the seventh meeting between Texas Tech and Ole Miss, with their most recent prior meeting coming in 2018. Coming into the bowl, the Rebels led the all-time series 4–2. This was the fourth bowl game played between the two teams—they met in the 1986 Independence Bowl, 1998 Independence Bowl, and 2009 Cotton Bowl Classic; all three match-ups ended in a victory for Ole Miss.
Texas Tech
Texas Tech, from the Big 12, finished the regular season with a record of 7–5, led by first-year head coach Joey McGuire. Highlights of the season included finishing with a winning conference record (5–4) for the first time since 2009 and defeating Texas and Oklahoma in the same season for the first time in program history. This was the Red Raiders' third Texas Bowl appearance, having won the 2012 edition, 34–31, to Minnesota and losing the 2015 edition, 27–56, to LSU. Texas Tech began the game in air raid formation as a tribute to former head coach Mike Leach.
Ole Miss
Ole Miss, from the SEC, finished the regular season with a record of 8–4, led by third-year head coach Lane Kiffin. The team started the season 7–0, but lost four of their next five games. This was the Rebels' first Texas Bowl appearance.
Game summary
Statistics
+Team statistical comparisonStatisticTexas TechOle MissFirst downs 27 27First downs rushing 11 12First downs passing 11 14First downs penalty 5 1Third down efficiency 7–19 5–13Fourth down efficiency 5–6 2–7Total plays–net yards 88–484 84–558Rushing attempts–net yards 48–242 43–197Yards per rush 5.0 4.3Yards passing 242 361Pass completions–attempts 24–40 25–41Interceptions thrown 1 3Punt returns–total yards 1–38 1–43Kickoff returns–total yards 9–564 5–210Punts–average yardage 1–38.0 1–43.0Fumbles–lost 3–2 2–2Penalties–yards 3–15 8–86Time of possession 33:24 26:36
+Texas Tech statisticsRed Raiders passing Tyler Shough 24–39 242 1–1 Behren Morton 0–1 0 0–0Red Raiders rushing Tyler Shough 25 111 2 Tahj Brooks 14 90 0 Cam'Ron Valdez 1 29 0 SaRodorick Thompson 7 14 1 TEAM 1 –2 0Red Raiders receiving Loic Fouonji 7 100 0 Jerand Bradley 8 88 1 Myles Price 3 35 0 Xavier White 3 11 0 Brady Boyd 1 9 0 Henry Teeter 1 5 0 SaRodorick Thompson 1 –6 0
+Ole Miss statisticsRebels passing Jaxson Dart 25–41 361 2–3Rebels rushing Quinshon Judkins 23 91 0 Jaxson Dart 11 66 1 Zach Evans 8 37 1 Dayton Wade 1 3 0Rebels receiving Malik Heath 8 137 1 Dayton Wade 3 73 0 Jonathan Mingo 3 53 0 Jordan Watkins 4 45 1 Zach Evans 4 26 0 Quinshon Judkins 2 16 0 Bralon Brown 1 11 0
References