Texas Tech University Athletics
Texas Tech Travels To Sun Bowl To Take On UTEP
September 10, 2001 | Football
Sept. 10, 2001
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SETTING THE SCENE
Texas Tech opened the season with a 42-30 win over New Mexico Sat., Sept. 8, at Jones SBC Stadium in Lubbock. The Miners are coming off of a 52-6 win against Texas Southern at the Sun Bowl in El Paso.
The Red Raiders (1-0) travel to El Paso to face the Miners (1-1) for the first time since the 1957 season when UTEP went by Texas Western. The two teams did meet in Lubbock to open the 1998 season in their last meeting. The Red Raiders won the game 35-3 and lead the all-time series 10-6-1.
TELEVISION
ESPN2 will carry the Tech-UTEP game live at 9:05 p.m. (CT). Rich Cellini (play-by-play), Mark May (analyst) and Rob Stone (sideline) will call the action from the Sun Bowl in El Paso.
RADIO
The All Sports Radio Network is in its sixth season of broadcasting Texas Tech football games on a network basis. The 27-station network covers the state of Texas and Eastern New Mexico. Brian Jensen (play-by-play), John Harris (color) and Mark Finkner (sideline) provide gameday coverage. The broadcast may also be heard via the Internet at www.texastech.com.
All Texas Tech football games are broadcast in Spanish via KXTQ in Lubbock. Mario Montez and Israel Aguilar provide commentary. The Spanish broadcast can also be heard on the Internet at www.texastech.com.
MIKE LEACH AT A GLANCE
Alma Mater - Brigham Young, 1983
Overall Record - 8-6 (Second Season)
Home Record - 7-2
2001 Record - 1-0
Record vs. UTEP - First Meeting
TEXAS TECH STAT LEADERS
Passing - Kliff Kingsbury 30-49 / 364 yds (3 TD)
Rushing - Ricky Williams 14-55 yds
Receiving - Nehemiah Glover 9-102 yds
Tackles - Lawrence Flugence 11
GARY NORD AT A GLANCE
Alma Mater - Louisville, 1979
Overall Record - 9-5 (Second Season)
Home Record - 7-0
2001 Record - 1-1
Record vs. Texas Tech - First Meeting
UTEP STAT LEADERS
Passing - Wesley Phillips 26-50 / 323 yds (2 TD)
Rushing - Sherman Austin 16-99 yds (3 TD)
Receiving - Lee Mays 9-142 yds (1 TD)
Tackles - Robert Rodriguez 11 (2 INT)
TEXAS TECH VS. THE WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
Texas Tech is 73-55-2 all-time against current members of the Western Athletic Conference. Fifty wins came against former Southwest Conference members SMU and Rice. The Red Raiders have 25 victories against both schools. Only Tulsa and San Jose State have winning records over the Red Raiders, each by one game.
UTEP GAME FIRST WEEKNIGHT GAME SINCE 1994
Texas Tech's game at UTEP Thursday night will mark the first time since the 1994 season that the Red Raiders have played a game on a day other than Saturday. On Fri., Nov. 25, 1994, Tech faced TCU in Lubbock to close the regular season.
THREE STRAIGHT ON THE ROAD FIRST IN EIGHT SEASONS
Texas Tech will face its next three opponents on the road, marking the first time since the 1993 season that the Red Raiders have played three straight away from home. Tech faces UTEP (9/13), North Texas (9/22) and Texas (9/29) on the road, before returning home to meet Kansas Oct. 6. The Red Raiders traveled to Nebraska, Georgia and Baylor during the 1993 season after opening at home.
DEFENSE IMPRESSIVE ON THIRD-DOWN CONVERSIONS
The Texas Tech first-team defense held New Mexico without a third-down conversion in 11 attempts on the night. The Lobos finished the game with three third-down conversions, all coming late in the fourth quarter against the second- and third-team.
TECH DEFENSE ALSO LIMITS PLAY COUNT
In addition to shutting down New Mexico on third-down conversions, the Texas Tech defense also held the Lobos to seven three-and-outs in 16 possessions.
WILLIAMS' GAME MULTI-DIMENSIONAL
Senior running back Ricky Williams carried the ball 14 times for 55 yards against New Mexico, but also caught seven passes for 89 yards and a touchdown. Additionally, Williams returned a kickoff seven yards. Prior to last season, Williams had 306 receiving yards in two seasons. In 13 games under Mike Leach's system, Williams has 317 receiving yards and 59 receptions.
McCLENDON KEEPS TREND GOING
Senior defensive back Paul McClendon scooped up a Lobo fumble in the fourth quarter and returned it for a touchdown. The score marked the third-straight season that Texas Tech has returned a fumble for a touchdown in the season opener.
TRANSITION COMPLETE FOR MICKEY PETERS
After catching three balls for 25 yards in 2000, sophomore receiver Mickey Peters opened the 2001 season with two receptions for 39 yards and his first career touchdown. Peters was signed in 1999 as a quarterback and was moved to receiver last season. He completed 3-of-3 passes last season as a receiver, all on trick plays.
SCORE, AND SCORE OFTEN
Trailing 7-3 after the first quarter, the Red Raiders rattled off a field goal and two touchdowns on their first three possessions of the second quarter. Robert Treece connected on a 32-yard kick with 12:31 to play in the frame. Kliff Kingsbury found Wes Welker for an 18-yard touchdown pass at 8:50 and hit Mickey Peters with a 24-yard scoring strike on the next possession with 6:57 to play. Tech led 21-14 at the half and never trailed again.
KINGSBURY GOOD AT HOME
Kliff Kingsbury has an 8-2 record as the Red Raider starter in Jones SBC Stadium. His first start came in the season finale in 1999 against Oklahoma. Last year, Kingsbury led Tech to six wins at home. In 10 games at Jones SBC Stadium, Kingsbury is averaging 274.8 yards per game.
KINGSBURY CONTINUES ASSAULT ON CHARTS
Junior quarterback Kliff Kingsbury set a school record against New Mexico, throwing a touchdown pass in his seventh-consecutive game. Kingsbury also took sole possession of second place on Tech's all-time 300-yard passing game list with his fifth. He trails Tech's all-time leader Robert Hall by one game. And finally, Kingsbury moved into fifth place on Tech's career total offense list, passing Byron Hanspard and James Gray. Kingsbury has 4,274 yards of career total offense at Tech.
DEBUTING AT TEXAS TECH
Several newcomers to the Red Raider program wasted little time making their presence felt in the season opener against New Mexico. 4 Walk-on kicker Robert Treece connected on his first two field goal attempts from 33 and 32 yards and finished the night with a team-high 10 points. 4 True freshman Ivory McCann provided the night's biggest excitement with a school-record 108-yard kickoff return in the third quarter. McCann is only the fifth player in Texas Tech history to return a kick 100-plus yards. 4 Redshirt freshman Nehemiah Glover led the Red Raiders with nine receptions and 102 yards. He also caught a long pass of 36 yards.
WILLIAMS JUST SHORT OF 3,000
Senior running back Ricky Williams needs just 10 yards to become only the fourth player in Texas Tech history to rush for 3,000 career yards. Williams entered the New Mexico game needing 65 yards to eclipse the mark, but finished the game with 55 yards on 14 carries. Byron Hanspard, James Gray and Bam Morris are the only three who have rushed for 3,000 or more yards.
BRINGING 'EM IN
The Texas Tech-New Mexico game drew 48,924 fans to Jones SBC Stadium, marking the largest home-opening crowd since the Texas A&M game in 1983. Since most of Tech's top 10 crowds are against Texas and Texas A&M, the largest crowd in a Tech home opener, excluding UT and A&M, came against USC in 1979. The Top Two (excluding Texas and Texas A&M) 52,991 USC (1979) 48,924 New Mexico (2001)
ON THIS DATE...
Texas Tech has played five games throughout the history of the program on September 13. Tech is 2-3 in those five games. Season Opponent Result 1997 Southwestern Louisiana W, 59-14 1990 (18) Houston L, 35-51 1986 at (2) Miami L, 11-61 1980 (15) North Carolina L, 3-9 1975 Florida State W, 31-20
NO PLACE LIKE JONES
Texas Tech has a 276-144-13 record in Lubbock since the inception of the program in 1925.
TECH RANKS HIGH IN GRADUATION RATES SURVEY
The American Football Coaches Association recognized Texas Tech football as one of the nation's top 30 programs in graduating its student-athletes.
Texas Tech recognized a jump in graduation to 70 percent this past year after graduating 54 percent the previous year. Tech, Baylor and Nebraska were the only schools from the Big 12 recognized as having graduated 70 percent or higher.
CURTIS NAMED TO THORPE AWARD "WATCH LIST"
Senior strong safety Kevin Curtis was been named to the Thorpe Award "Watch List" for the 2001 season. The Thorpe Award is presented annually to the nation's top defensive back.
Curtis also has received several preseason honors, including being named a second-team All-American by Street & Smith's. He also is listed as one of the top 10 collegiate safeties entering the 2001 season by Lindy's College Football.
The 6-foot-3, 223-pound Lubbock native finished second on the team last season with 121 tackles and fourth in the Big 12 Conference. His 320 career tackles ranks ninth all-time at Tech, trailing former Tech All-American Gabe Rivera by one tackle.
Other players named to the list include Quentin Jammer (Texas), Roy Williams (Oklahoma), Pig Prather (Mississippi State) and Lito Sheppard (Florida).
KINGSBURY NAMED TO DAVEY O'BRIEN "WATCH LIST"
Junior quarterback Kliff Kingsbury was been named to the Davey O'Brien Foundation Watch List for the upcoming season. The award is presented annually to the nation's top college quarterback.
Joining Kingsbury on the list from the Big 12 is Eric Crouch (Nebraska), Mark Farris (Texas A&M) and Chris Simms (Texas).
The O'Brien Award is named in honor of the late Davey O'Brien, the All-American and Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback for Texas Christian University who led the Horned Frogs to the 1938 National Championship.
WILLIAMS NAMED DOAD WALKER AWARD CANDIDATE
Senior running back Ricky Williams has been named to the candidate list for the 2001 Doak Walker Award.
Williams rushed for 1,582 yards during his sophomore season in 1998 and was named one of eight semifinalists for the award. He also was on the preseason candidate list in 1999 and was a preseason favorite to win the honor.
He is currently fourth on the all-time rushing yardage list at Texas Tech with 2,935 career yards. He also ranks third in career rushing attempts with 647. In 1998, Williams established two of Tech's top 10 single-game rushing totals with 251 yards against UTEP and 244 yards against Fresno State.
