I am sorry if I seem a little out of sorts today, but you see, I am a Die-Hard Red Raider Fan. GUNS UP!! I first became enthralled with the Raider as a teenager. I worked at a service station (those antique institutions in which a human attendant approached your car in the driveway and asked "Fill 'er up? Check under the hood?") on Saturdays during my high school years. During football season the radio was always tuned to Red Raider football. I was into rock and roll then, but the radio was on country as per the owner, and as my roots were well grounded in country music, I was able to tolerate country for a few hours. Actually I like old country and was therefore really annoyed when the music was interrupted by football games.
On one particular Saturday, business was really slow. I had done all of the things service station boys did, such as washing off the driveway, cleaning spilled grease, and assorted other oily tasks, and had no alternative but to walk into the office and listen to radio. Texas Tech was playing the Houston Cougars. The game turned out to be a real nail-biter with Tech finally coming from behind to win with a field goal. The Red Raiders were such an exciting, explosive team that after that game I was hooked. But I learned that being a Red Raider fan could certainly have its ups and downs. Some of those "downs" happened after some very high "ups." For instance, the very NEXT Saturday the Red Raiders went to Arkansas and got their behinds handed to them by the Razorbacks to the tune of 49 to 7. The only positive thing to say was that at least the Red Raiders had killed the skunk.
A Red Raider fan had better learn early on to get in the roller coaster seat and buckle up. The highs will be HIGH and the lows will be nearly ninety-degree drops. The good thing is that there is usually not a flat bottom, but just another 180 bend and then a 5 G-force blast back to the top. The most recent example of course was the Red Raider's victory over OU on October 21. The Sooners were then the number one ranked team in College Football. What a great victory, even though this game too was a nail-biter. But the Red Raiders were on a high, and with good reason. They had hung on and knocked off the Sooners against all odds!
But the very NEXT week, the Red Raiders dove straight down the roller coaster, losing to the Iowa State Cyclones 41 - 7. What a bummer! The Die-Hard fans hit that curve with Red Raiders...only this curve DID prove to be a little flatter than the last. The Raiders have now lost three games by at least twenty points. But they lost Saturday's game against the Oklahoma State University Cowboys BIG TIME. The final score was 66-6! This was the worst margin of defeat in the history of the Red Raider football program. And there is still more bad news. The Red Raiders still face two good teams, the Missouri Tigers and those remarkable Baylor Bears, under the direction of Robert Griffin III. The good news is that, depending on WHICH Red Raider team shows up, these final two games could be very exciting.
I have to wonder, at this point, if Coach Tuberville is giving some thought to whether he is sitting in the head-coach chair or the ejection seat. 2011 has certainly been a Tale of Two Seasons for the Red Raiders. I am sure that no one is more aware of this than Coach Tuberville, except for maybe Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt and some of the Tech alumni. Could they be getting a little antsy for a return to the Tech glory days under Mike Leach? On the other hand, Coach Tuberville has great credentials, being the former Auburn head coach. The two remaining games of the regular season are of great importance, both for Tuberville and the Red Raiders, and for Die-Hard Fans, like me. The roller coaster is still rolling on the flat track at the moment. I just hope the real Red Raiders show up at these last games. I can tell you there is nothing like that sudden 5 G-force, 90 degree curve in the rails that will fire the Red Raiders back to the top, then...who knows what will be waiting at the next bend of the rails!!
So, Die-Hard Red Raiders Fans, suck in your guts, let go of your safety grips...and GUNS UP, RED RAIDERS!
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