Countdown to Kickoff: 49 Days
PREVIOUS COUNTDOWN TO KICKOFF ENTRIES: 50
Texas Tech's 2016 football season will begin in exactly 49 days with a Sept. 3 kickoff against Stephen F. Austin.
Today, we continue our Countdown to Kickoff series with a look at a notable way the number 49 relates to Red Raider football.
49: Texas Tech's 49th football season was one of the best in program history.
Entering Jim Carlen's fourth year at Texas Tech, the football program was almost two decades removed from its last taste of real national relevance - the famous 1953 team that went 11-1 and beat Auburn in the 1954 Gator Bowl. Carlen had elevated the program, winning eight games in two of his first three seasons, but elite success was elusive.
Until 1973, Texas Tech's 49th football season.
Led by quarterback Joe Barnes and All-American tight end Andre Tillman, the 1973 Red Raiders went 11-1 with wins against No. 19 Arizona and No. 20 Tennessee in the Gator Bowl. Texas Tech's lone setback that season, and what ultimately kept it from winning the Southwest Conference crown, was an early-season 25-20 loss to No. 12 Texas.
Carlen's team finished the 1973 campaign ranked No. 11, marking the first time Texas Tech had ended a season ranked in the AP Top 25 since 1953.
Tomorrow: 48 - We look back at one of the most exciting wins in Texas Tech's series against Texas A&M.
