Before the TCU game, I wrote about Texas Tech's lack of 11:00 am kickoffs as a silver lining on an otherwise slog of a season.

So, what's the silver lining? Is it the freshmen who have made an impact? No, but that is an encouraging sign. Tajh Brooks, Myles Price, Philip Blidi, and several other freshmen have been playing snaps this season.

 

Is it the special teams play? After a shaky start, Austin McNamara has been booming punts and has seemingly fixed his whole 'getting punts blocked' issue. Too many issues otherwise, though, to make this a silver lining.

 

Is it on the defensive side? No. Giving up 63 to Oklahoma and only getting stops after the other team stops trying to score isn't helping the theory that the defense is significantly improving.

 

It's not the offense. So what is it?

 

No 11 a.m. kickoffs.

 

You might have already noticed, but after the latest announcement that Baylor and Texas Tech would kickoff at 3 p.m. that makes eight straight games with a kickoff later than 11 a.m. Last season, Texas Tech had four early games. In 2017 and 2018 combined, the Red Raiders had 13 kickoffs scheduled for 11 a.m. out of their 24 games.

 

So even though the product on the field hasn't been to the expected level of the fanbase and the wins aren't exactly stacking up, at least Texas Tech isn't doing it at 11 a.m. That's the part everyone hated. Not the losing and the ineptitude; it was the 11 a.m. kickoffs. And those are gone.

I now need to apologize. The FIRST game scheduled since that blog is an 11:00 am kickoff. I jinxed it. I apologize. To be fair though I actually prefer the road games to be scheduled at 11:00 am. You can just get into the game and get it over with and then have the rest of your day to do whatever you want.

The rest of the Thanksgiving weekend schedule lines up with Iowa State and Texas on Friday at 11:00 am. This game will be a play-in game for the Big 12 Championship for Iowa State and an elimination game for the Longhorns. Believe it or not, the Longhorns are absolutely still in the mix for a Big 12 championship appearance.

On Saturday, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State will play at 11:00 am while Kansas State and Baylor, Oklahoma and West Virginia, and TCU and Kansas will all play night games.

The next week of Big 12 football, which will be Texas Tech's final regular-season game, will be decided next  Saturday after the conclusion of the Big 12 games.

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