Let me start this off by being very clear. I BLEED ORANGE AND BLACK. My mood lives and dies with Oklahoma State football and I am very, very proud of my school, my coach, and my football program.
Which is why it will probably surprise you to find out that I grew up in a house that breathes Texas Tech football.
Right. I am absolutely the black sheep. (I mean Dad went to UH but never really had that much school pride. He's an NFL guy for sure.)
You see, I have an Uncle that played football for Texas Tech and he is definitely one of my favorite people on the planet. For as long as I can remember, Uncle Mike's visits have meant staying up late in the living room and crying laughing at his stories. It doesn't matter that you know exactly how the story is going to end...You still cry from the way he tells it.
I'm sure if you find the Parking Ticket guy from Tech in the late 70's, he would tell you a very different, less humorous side of the story. It's seriously a wonder that there are any trees on that campus at all, but that's a story for a different time.
My mom has been telling us since we were little the story of my uncle's commitment to Tech. He was a highly touted high school recruit with offers to every school in Texas, and he had verbally committed to Texas A&M. After a trip to a knee specialist in Houston, Dr. Lin Jones convinced my uncle to take his last official visit to Texas Tech.
My uncle was on the campus for 10 minutes before calling home and telling his mom and dad that he was changing his commitment.
How upset was Texas A&M? Let's just say that my uncle's recruiting coach was in his high school that Monday trying to track him down. It didn't work. (Thank gosh. Can you imagine how different this story would be?!)
So for as long as I can remember Texas Tech has been the one college program I have consistently watched.
Come my senior year, I take my "official visit" to Tech, (Meaning I got to take a Friday off from school mainly. Although I am tall and look like I should play basketball, I am not a coordinated runner and very much a fish out of water on a court), and I loved everything about it.
Except the size of the campus.
You see, I love big time athletic programs, but directions are not my strong point and the tour guide lost me somewhere around the phrase "second largest contiguous campus in the United States behind the Air Force Academy."
That's right. The only larger campus in the U.S. REQUIRES AIRPLANE LANDING STRIPS.
Had I not stumbled upon the quaint, compact campus I fell in love with in Stillwater, I dare to say I would be bleeding red and black right now.
My visit was in 2008 and let me tell you, school spirit was insane. Tech was winning, the fans were rowdy, and the Jones was ELECTRIC.
You couldn't walk 2 feet without seeing a pirate reference and I'm pretty sure the "Raider Power" chant seriously never stopped that Saturday. Later that season, Tech went on to beat Texas in a game that had me standing on my chair in a Buffalo Wild Wings and screaming at the top of my lungs even though I was surrounded by longhorns. (Worth it.)
Then Leach was fired and Tech hired "he who must not be named."
Okay, a Voldemort reference may be a little extreme...so we'll compare him to a dementor.
Why?
Because I've never seen somebody suck the life out of a fan base so incredibly fast.
So in 2011 when I sent my beautiful little sister off to Lubbock (S/O Midge!) I was kind of bummed for her.
I wanted her to feel the kind of excitement that a game day in Stillwater brought. When you were literally sitting in the stadium with 60,000 of your closest friend and EVERY ONE was absolutely pumped about what was going on on the field.
Not the atmosphere that I saw when I went to Lubbock for her first family day.
It was even worse going back for the Oklahoma State game that year. Tech was routed 66-6 at home (those 6 points were on a pick 6 btw. The offense literally never scored) and after halftime, there was no red left in the stands. We just happened to be lucky enough to have made some new friends who owned a suite in the Jones and had we not been watching the game from there, I'm not sure we would've stuck around either. (Our fight song was even starting to irritate me)
Then, our friend Lynn who owns the suite, and is wise beyond his years, said something to my sister that crushed me.
"I wish you could've experienced Tech during the Leach days. Games were really fun back then."
I don't know about y'all but I want my little sister to have the best of everything and that felt like getting punched in the gut. She was at her dream school, known for the great college football atmosphere, and a single man was ruining it.
Then Tuberville announced his departure and I hoped that Athletic Director Hocutt would do right by Tech fans.
And then rumors about the return of a certain quarterback to take on the head coaching job started to surface.
I liked these rumors. My coach just happens to be a former star quarterback. While Les Miles certainly did not suck the life out our program, Gundy brought a different feel to it. After all, he is a MAN, and I don't know if you've ever seen him dance but the man can get down! He's fun, he's fair, and he makes me proud to be a Cowboy.
So when Hocutt summoned a patronous in the form of Kliff Kingsbury (keeping with the Harry Potter references here), I was ecstatic... and terrified.
I like winning in the family rivalry game (OK State V. Texas Tech), and I was perfectly aware the Kingsbury was going to make that a lot more difficult.
I knew all about what he did with Keenum in Houston, and the national attention he was getting for his role with Manziel's Heisman winning season. (Plus he refused to wear maroon at A&M...a man after my own heart.) I knew he was exciting and brilliant...and dangerous.
But I could not have imagined what happened next.
My sister called me to tell that it was like a complete 180...and the man hadn't even stepped on campus yet.
Then he asked that "Kirby put Cincinnati on the schedule for next year." and every heart in Lubbock healed. Tech football was back, in a big way, and with Kingsbury being only 33, it looks like it's here to stay.
I made my obligatory sister trip to Lubbock less than a month and I could not believe the difference in school spirit. Everyone I talked to couldn't stop rambling about Kliff's return, the upcoming season, or how excited they were.
... & Football season was still 7 months away.
I have the pleasure of saying that I returned for family weekend in August and I have never been so squished, uncomfortable, or had my ear drums assaulted from loud cheers so loudly.
The Jones is finally electric again, school pride is soaring, and I am finally worried about the family rivalry match up.
I'm even looking forward to the trash talking from my sister leading up to it. I'm glad that she's FINALLY getting the experience she so longed for.
So THANK YOU, Kliff Kingsbury.
Thanks for making the Jones an incredibly fun place to see a game again, even for an opposing fan.
Thanks for making my Uncle proud to be a Texas Tech football alumni.
Thank you for being so modest in all of your interviews and constantly giving the credit back to the players
But most of all, Thanks for providing my sister with the college football experience she deserves, and bringing back the trash talk in our Sunday football review conversations.
You are the Harry Potter Tech was looking for. (Okay, last HP reference. My nerdy heart is now happy.)
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