Ranking the Texas Tech football 2019 schedule

Texas Tech's season is less than a month from kicking off the 2019 season and the Matt Wells era. The Red Raiders enter the season with Alan Bowman entrenched as the starting quarterback, and return plenty of experience on both the offensive and defensive lines. This was a group picked by the media to finish 7th in the Big 12, but definitely has the talent to outproduce that projection.

Today we decided to take a look at the schedule, ranking the games from what I believe to be the easiest to the hardest on the calendar.

Pretty easy decision for the easiest game here. Montana State is a talented team that made the FCS playoffs a season ago, but Tech shouldn't have much of an issue at home. In 2017 some media "experts" predicted Tech would lose to Eastern Washington and Tech ended up winning 56-10. That's how these FCS games should go and I expect a similar result here.

UTEP is not very good, they went 1-11 in 2018 with their only win being a game at Rice. Texas Tech is at home and should handily defeat their neighbors from the southwest.

The last time Texas Tech hosted UTEP was in 2015 when Aaron Jones ran for what felt like a million yards but Tech still won 69-20. It's not a game they should overlook, no game is, but it should be another comfortable win.

Texas Tech is 19-1 all time against Kansas, and is currently on a 12 game winning streak against the Jayhawks. The last time Kansas was even within a score of Tech was 2012 when the Red Raiders won 41-34.

This is a new team with a new coach but Les Miles won't get this turned around overnight. Tech is the better team and should come out with a road win, if they don't it will be a long season in Lubbock, TX.

Kansas State has owned Texas Tech in the last 8 years, going 7-1 against Tech, despite Tech being the more talented team sometimes it just hasn't worked out for them. The Wildcats under Bill Snyder didn't make mistakes, and always capitalized on Tech's. The last three meetings have seen KSU wins by 6, by 7 and by 15 in what turned out to be the beginning of the end for Kliff Kingsbury.

Matt Wells has said all along his goal is to be 6-0 at home, and winning a late November game against KSU would be a good sign for Tech fans that have seen too few home wins in recent history.

The toughest challenge on the non-conference schedule, it's hard to know what kind of team Arizona will have this season. Two years ago Khalil Tate was a Heisman candidate and Arizona averaged over 41 points per game. Last season, in Kevin Sumlin's first as head coach, Tate's numbers fell off as Arizona averaged a little over 31 points a game and went 5-7.

This is a very important game for Tech as they have an early bye week the next before heading to Norman, Oklahoma to face OU.

Maybe I have this game too low but after the 2018 demolition in Stillwater, Tech fans have at least a little confidence heading into this one. The Cowboys were previously on a 9 game winning streak against Tech and finally that was over.

OSU has plenty of questions entering the year, most importantly being who will start at quarterback. Matt Wells' Big 12 home opener is a big one and this is a very important game for Tech to win if they want to make a bowl in 2019.

I really like Neal Brown as a coach, I would have been perfectly fine with Tech hiring him too. He's a great coach and will have WVU as a tough league opponent year in and year out. I don't think they will be good in 2019, they lost too much on the offensive side of the ball coupled with the scheme changes.

But this is still a road game against a team that's been in Tech's head a little the last few years. Morgantown is never an easy place to play in any sport, that's why I think this game deserves to be ranked this highly despite my projection of WVU not being all that great.

TCU has always been in interesting game for Tech the last few years, other than 2014 these games have always been close for the most part despite TCU being the better team in that time frame. TCU still hasn't named a starting quarterback but early reports suggest it could be Kansas St transfer Alex Delton. Of course this game is late in the year, and they could make a switch by then if Delton doesn't get it done.

Either way expect the Frogs to be solid again defensively and hit-or-miss offensively, aside from superstar receiver Jalen Reagor they don't have much that scares you on that side of the ball.

This will be a bit different, with the games being in Arlington from 2009-2018 (with the exception of 2010 when it was at the Cotton Bowl), the teams last met in Waco way back in 2007. Baylor returns a lot from their 7-6 team in 2018, including QB Charlie Brewer and a lot of other starters on offense. Their defense wasn't any good but could improve in year 3 under Matt Rhule as they have recruited relatively well in recent years.

Winning on the road is always tough and this game will be no different. On another note, this is the most expensive ticket on Tech's schedule with a get in price of $73 right now on Vivid Seats. No surprise with this being the closest Red Raider game to DFW this season.

One of the more annoying trends in recent years for Tech fans was seeing Iowa State completely flip the script and just demolish Tech in every facet of recent meetings. Kliff Kingsbury and his staff could not figure out the Cyclones' "cloud 3" defense, nor could Tech's defense stop Joel Lanning, Kyle Kempt, Brock Purdy, or whoever was under center for ISU.

Iowa State was chosen to finish 3rd in the Preseason Big 12 poll, and for good reason. They return the #1 defense in the conference and this will be Tech's toughest game on the home schedule.

Kliff Kingsbury went 35-40 at Tech but 2-1 in Austin. Go figure.

In any ways, Texas is coming off their best season in years, finishing 10-4 including a Sugar Bowl win against Georgia. They were projected to finish 2nd in the Preseason Big 12 poll and return star QB Sam Ehlinger.

We know the story with Texas, they recruit like hell and have talent all up and down the roster, they just haven't really gotten it done like they probably should have. Tech's recent history in Austin should give them hope, but the Red Raiders will have to play one of their better games of the season to win this one.

Not really a question for who would be #1, Oklahoma has won the Big 12 four (4) years in a row and are favored to do it again this season. They also almost never lose at home. This is also the Big 12 opener for both teams, and both teams will be coming off a bye. Not sure if that favors anyone, but Matt Wells and staff will have two weeks to come up with a gameplan for the Sooners.

Alabama transfer QB Jalen Hurts will surely start, even though head coach Lincoln Riley has not officially said so. Texas Tech last beat OU in 2011 and that game was in Norman, could history repeat itself in 2019?