Texas Tech University Athletics
Game Day!
December 30, 2004 | Football
Dec. 30, 2004
Texas Tech vs. California
2004 Pacific Life Holiday Bowl
Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, California
5 p.m. (PT) ESPN (High Definition Broadcast)
GOING BOWLING AGAIN
Texas Tech makes its 28th bowl appearance, dating back to the 1938 Sun Bowl. This will be Texas Tech's record fifth-straight appearance under head coach Mike Leach and first in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl. Leach is the only coach in school history to guide each of his teams to bowl appearances.
Under Leach, the Red Raiders are 2-2 in bowl appearances. Tech advanced to the 2000 Galleryfurniture.com Bowl and fell to East Carolina (40-27) and appeared in the 2001 Alamo Bowl, losing 19-16 to Iowa. The Red Raiders defeated Navy (38-14) in the Houston Bowl last year, giving the program its first back-to-back bowl wins in consecutive years in school history. Tech routed Clemson (55-15) in 2002 at the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando.
SENIOR CLASS
Twenty Texas Tech seniors will be making their last appearance as Red Raiders in the 2004 Pacific Life Holiday Bowl. They are Ryan Bishop (Arvada, Colo.), Calvin Bradshaw (Houston, Texas), Wich Brenner (High Point, N.C.), Cody Campbell (Canyon, Texas), Sonny Cumbie (Snyder, Texas), Adell Duckett (Mineral Wells, Texas), Dylan Gandy (Pflugerville, Texas), Nehemiah Glover (LaMarque, Texas), Trey Haverty (Richardson, Texas), Joey Hawkins (Hurst, Texas), Jamaal Jackson (Bruce, Miss.), Dustin Jonas (Rapid City, S.D.), Daniel Loper (Houston, Texas), Clay McGuire (Crane, Texas), Johnnie Mack (Lakeland, Fla.), Patrice Majondo-Mwamba (Brussels, Belgium), Josh Rangel (West Covina, Calif.), Jabari Smith (Pasadena, Calif.), Mike Smith (Lubbock, Texas) and Geremy Woods (Andrews, Texas).
ANOTHER WINNING SEASON
Texas Tech Football is in its 80th year on the South Plains and has posted 46 seasons with winning records and another six seasons with an even mark. Tech has turned in winning records in each of the last 10 years. Over the course of 80 years, the program has 464 wins, 375 losses and 32 ties.
RAIDERS POST TOP OVERALL LEAGUE FINISH
Texas Tech's 5-3 record ties the Red Raiders with Texas A&M in third place in the overall conference standings and is the highest finish for a Tech team since the inception of the league in 1996. Oklahoma finished the conference season undefeated at 8-0 followed by Texas at 7-1.
CRAZY EIGHTS
With a 7-4 record heading into the bowl game, the Red Raiders are a win away from posting eight wins in three-consecutive seasons, something that has never been accomplished at Texas Tech. The Red Raiders finished the 2002 season 9-5 and had an 8-5 mark last season.
TEXAS TECH EMERGES ON TOP AFTER NINE SEASONS
Each year they dropped off one by one. Now the Red Raiders are left standing. Texas Tech is the only team in the nine-year history of the Big 12 Conference to post winning seasons in each of those years and be bowl eligible. Entering the 2004 campaign, Kansas State and Nebraska also were in the mix, but struggled through losing seasons.
