Texas Tech Football has seen a handful of successful periods in its history–most recently in 2013, when the Red Raiders went 8-4, and capped the season with a Holiday Bowl victory over ASU. Since then, the seasons have been mediocre at best, despite wins over Baylor, Texas, and TCU sprinkled in without much consistency.
The 2016 season ended at 5-7, but if you perform an autopsy on last year, you realize that Texas Tech was about 21 points from being 8-4, and Bowl eligible. We can blame the defense all we want (and yes, the inconsistencies there have been unacceptable), however, several ill-advised passes from Mahomes, and a few drops could have carved out a successful season, and we would be having a much different conversation.