SERIES HISTORY
Overall MSU leads 4-2-1
In Lubbock MSU leads 2-1
In Mississippi MSU leads 2-1-1
At Neutral Site First Meeting
Current Streak Lost 2
Last Meeting MSU 20, Tech 16 (1970)
Mississippi State Bulldogs Notes
None provided
Texas Tech Red Raiders Notes
RED RAIDERS ARE BOWLING FOR 39TH TIME
Texas Tech will make its 39th bowl appearance in school history Dec. 28 when the Red Raiders face Mississippi State in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis. This will be Tech’s first-ever trip to the Liberty Bowl as the Red Raiders are 14-23-1 all-time in bowl games after wins in nine of their last 13 contests.
Texas Tech has historically ranked among the most frequent bowl participants in college football history as the Red Raiders currently rank tied for 21st nationally and tied for third in the Big 12 for all-time postseason appearances.
RECORD BOOK WATCH FOR LIBERTY BOWL
Texas Tech will be keeping an eye on the record book throughout the AutoZone Liberty Bowl as several Red Raiders could potentially place their name among the all-time greats in school history. In particular, Austin McNamara could snap the Tech single-season mark for punting average as he enters the bowl averaging an impressive 48.4 yards per attempt.
On the defensive side, linebacker Colin Schooler needs two solo tackles to move into the top five in NCAA FBS history as he enters the bowl game ranked seventh with 307 solo stops. Riko Jeffers, meanwhile, is six tackles shy of becoming the 15th Red Raider in history to record 300 career stops.
ONE FINAL TIME FOR TECH SENIORS
Texas Tech will say goodbye to several seniors following the AutoZone Liberty Bowl as the matchup with Mississippi State will be the final contest for the likes of Colin Schooler, Riko Jeffers, Dawson Deaton, DaMarcus Fields and Josh Burger, among others.
With a win over Mississippi State, Texas Tech will send its seniors out by clinching its first winning season since 2015 when the Red Raiders finished 7-6 overall after a loss in the Texas Bowl. The Red Raiders are making their first bowl appearance since 2017 when Tech fell to South Florida in the Birmingham Bowl.
TEAM NOTEBOOK THE MISSISSIPPI STATE SERIES
TEXAS TECH, MISSISSIPPI STATE SET FOR FIRST MEETING IN 50 YEARS
Texas Tech and Mississippi State will face each other for the first time since 1970 at the Liberty Bowl in what will be only the eighth all-time meeting between the two schools. Mississippi State controls the series with a 4-2-1 advantage entering the bowl game.
This will be the first time the two schools have ever met in a bowl game as Mississippi State becomes the 34th different postseason
opponent for the Red Raiders in program history.
The Liberty Bowl will mark the first meeting between the two schools in more than 50 years as Texas Tech and Mississippi State last
met in 1970 to wrap a four game home-and-home series. The Red Raiders were 0-3-1 against the Bulldogs during that stretch with each of the two road games taking place in Jackson, Mississippi, south of the Starkville campus.
Texas Tech topped No. 18 Mississippi State, 27-20, in the first-ever meeting between the two schools in 1953. The victory was part of an 11-1 season for the Red Raiders, who set the school record for wins that season following a victory over No. 17 Auburn in the Gator
Bowl. That bowl appearance is best remembered by the debut of the Masked Rider as Joe Kirk Fulton led Texas Tech onto the field in what is still one of the most-memorable entrances in college football history.
TEXAS TECH VERSUS THE SEC
Texas Tech will be facing an opponent from the Southeastern Conference for the first time since 2018 when the Red Raiders opened
the season against Ole Miss in the AdvoCare Texas Kickoff at NRG Stadium in Houston. It will be only the 11th time the Red Raiders have faced an SEC opponent since becoming a Big 12 Conference member in 1996.
The Red Raiders are 6-17-2 all-time against members of the SEC, excluding former Big 12 Conference members Missouri and Texas
A&M, who both departed the league following the 2011 season. Missouri faced the Red Raiders only one time as non-conference foes – a 41-14 rout for Texas Tech early in the 1995 season – before joining the Big 12 prior to the 1996 campaign. Texas A&M and Texas Tech, meanwhile, were longtime Southwest Conference and Big 12 rivals from 1960 up until the Aggies leaving the Big 12 in 2011. The two instate rivals met 18 times prior
The Red Raiders are 3-8 against SEC members since joining the Big 12 with two of those three victories coming against Ole Miss. Texas Tech swept a home-and-home agreement with the Rebels during the 2002 and 2003 seasons and then topped Arkansas in Fayetteville early in the 2015 campaign.
This will be the ninth time in history where the Red Raiders have faced an SEC opponent in a bowl and the first time since 2015 when
Texas Tech fell to No. 22 LSU in the AdvoCare Texas Bowl. The Red Raiders are 2-5-1 all-time in bowl games against SEC foes with their two wins coming in the 1953 Gator Bowl versus No. 17 Auburn and then the 1973 Gator Bowl over No. 20 Tennessee.
TEXAS TECH ALL-TIME IN BOWL GAMES
The Red Raiders advanced to a bowl game for the 39th time in school history with its thrilling victory over Iowa State on Nov. 13 that was capped by a 62-yard field goal from Jonathan Garibay as time expired. Texas Tech ranks tied for 21st among NCAA FBS programs and tied for third with West Virginia among Big 12 schools in all-time bowl appearances. The Red Raiders trail only fellow Big 12 members Texas (57) and Oklahoma (54) in all-time bowl appearances. Oklahoma will be making its 55th all-time bowl trip this season.
Texas Tech is 14-23-1 all-time in bowl games with wins in nine of its last 13 contests. The Red Raiders are making their first bowl appearance since 2017 when Tech fell to USF in the Birmingham Bowl.
The AutoZone Liberty Bowl becomes the 17th different bowl game Texas Tech has attended in its history and the first in the state of
Tennessee. The Liberty Bowl joined the Big 12 Conference rotation of bowl ties starting with the 2014 season.
This will be just Texas Tech’s 17th bowl appearance outside the state of Texas. Of the Red Raiders’ 16 bowl appearances since 2000 only six were located outside the state of Texas (2002 Tangerine, 2004 Holiday, 2006 Insight, 2007 Gator, 2013 Holiday, 2017 Birmingham). The Red Raiders are a combined 5-1 in those games during that span with the lone loss coming in the 2017 Birmingham Bowl. Tech is 9-6-1 in its history in bowl games located outside the state of Texas.
This will be the third time in school history where an interim head coach will lead the Red Raiders in a bowl game. Ruffin McNeil previously led the Red Raiders to a 41-31 victory over Michigan State in the 2009 Alamo Bowl, while Chris Thomsen did the same with a 34-31 win over Minnesota in the 2012 Meineke Car Care Bowl. Ironically, Sonny Cumbie was involved with both of those wins as he was promoted from a graduate assistant to an assistant coach for the Alamo Bowl in 2009 and then was the offensive coordinator for Texas Tech’s win in Houston a few years later.
RANDOM TIDBITS HEADING INTO BOWL WEEK
With a win over Mississippi State in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, Texas Tech will clinch its first winning season since 2015 when the Red Raiders finished 7-6 overall after a loss in the Texas Bowl. The Red Raiders advanced to a bowl in 2017, finishing 6-6 in the regular season before a loss to South Florida in the Birmingham Bowl.
Texas Tech needs to hit the 30-point mark against the Bulldogs to average at least 30.0 points per game for the 19th time in the past 20 seasons. The Red Raiders, who averaged only 29.1 points per game in 2020, have not been held under 30.0 points per contest in consecutive seasons since a five-year run from 1996-2000.
Texas Tech is 7-6 during the month of December as Big 12 Conference members (since 1996).
Texas Tech will be making only its second appearance in the state of Tennessee as the Red Raiders previously opened the 1997 season at No. 5 Tennessee. The Red Raiders have faced the Vols twice in its history as the two schools also met in the 1973 Gator Bowl. Tech has also faced fellow Tennessee school Vanderbilt once, which ended in a 6-6 tie in the 1974 Peach Bowl.
A victory over Mississippi State would mark Texas Tech’s fourth away from home this season as the Red Raiders previously opened
the season with a neutral site win at Houston followed by road wins at both West Virginia and Kansas. The Red Raiders have not secured four wins away from home in a season since 2017 when Tech headed home with victories over Houston, Kansas, Baylor (AT&T Stadium – Arlington) and Texas.
Texas Tech is 8-14-1 all-time in bowl games against unranked opponents, which includes a 6-5 mark as a Big 12 Conference member. This will be the sixth time Tech has faced an unranked opponent in its last eight bowl appearances as the Red Raiders are 3-2 during that stretch with wins over Minnesota (2012 Meineke Car Care), Northwestern (2010 TicketCity) and Michigan State (2009 Alamo).
The victory over Iowa State followed Texas Tech’s only open weekend of the 2021 season as the Red Raiders improved to 18-13 during the Big 12 era in the week following an open date. The Red Raiders have now won three of their last five games following an open date
after topping West Virginia during both the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Tech also had losses to No. 8 Texas and No. 23 Oklahoma State last season during that span.
Texas Tech’s first two conference wins this season came on the road as the Red Raiders won at West Virginia and Kansas. It marked the first time Tech has secured back-to-back Big 12 road wins since 2018 when the Red Raiders opened their league slate with a 41-17
rout of No. 15 Oklahoma State and then followed with a 17-14 victory at TCU.
Texas Tech’s kickoff unit will once again face a tough task in the Liberty Bowl as Mississippi State enters the game ranked fifth nationally, averaging 29.0 yards per return this season. The Red Raiders currently ranks 31st in the FBS for kickoff return defense as Tech is giving up only 18.7 yards per attempt this season.
NO FLAGS TO BE SEEN THIS SEASON
With a strong performance against Mississippi State, Texas Tech could potentially wrap one of its best seasons in recent memory when it relates to penalties as the Red Raiders currently rank 23rd nationally in fewest penalty yards (530), 25th for both fewest penalties (62)
and fewest penalty yards per game (44.2) and then 31st for fewest penalties per game (5.2).
As it stands now, Texas Tech needs to commit four or fewer penalties in the Liberty Bowl to mark its fewest in a season dating back to the start of the 2000 campaign. The Red Raiders were flagged only 67 times during the 2020 campaign, a season that featured only 10 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tech was also penalized for 577 yards during that season. In a normal season that features at
least 12 games, Tech’s previous best performances by total penalties came in 2019 when the Red Raiders were flagged 75 times and then 2001 when they had 674 penalty yards.
When it pertains to penalties on a per game basis, Texas Tech can ensure its best season pertaining to flags since 2000 by drawing 15 or fewer flags and 132 penalty yards against the Bulldogs. The Red Raiders’ best two seasons during that span previously came in 2010 when Tech averaged just 6.0 flags per game and then 2002 with 51.0 penalty yards per game.
Texas Tech was flagged only one time for five yards at Kansas as a false start penalty in the fourth quarter pushed Jonathan Garibay back for a 48-yard field goal attempt. It marked a school-record fifth time the Red Raiders were only penalized one time as Texas Tech
also had only one flag in 1988 versus Arkansas, 1991 versus Rice, 1992 against Texas A&M and 2016 at TCU. Texas Tech’s school record for fewest penalty yards also came in three of those games previously with the lone exception being the 1991 contest with Rice.
The performance against Kansas followed similar disciplined approaches against both West Virginia (2 penalties, 20 yards) and TCU (4 penalties, 25 yards) where the Red Raiders combined for only six flags for 45 yards. Texas Tech was flagged 12 times for 90 yards over
a four-game stretch against West Virginia, TCU, Kansas and Kansas State before committing only three for 38 yards in the regular-season finale at Baylor.
