Texas Tech to host Texas State in 2013, face UTEP home-and-home in 2014-15

By Kevin Kelley -

Texas Tech Red RaidersTexas Tech will host Texas State in 2013 and will face UTEP in a home-and-home series in 2014 and 2015, Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt told the Avalanche Journal.

No specific dates for the three games were mentioned. A representative of Texas Tech told us that currently there are “no dates yet for release.”

2013 will be the third consecutive season that Texas Tech has played Texas State. The Red Raiders beat the Bobcats 50-10 last season in Lubbock and 58-10 on Sept. 8, 2012 in San Marcos. The Bobcats joined the WAC on July 1, but are moving to the Sun Belt Conference in 2013.

The addition of Texas State should complete the 2013 non-conference schedule for the Red Raiders. Tech opens the season at SMU on Aug. 31 and then hosts Stephen F. Austin on Sept. 7. The Texas State game will likely be played on either Sept. 14 or Sept. 21.

With the announcement of a 2014-15 home-and-home series against the UTEP Miners, Texas Tech now has two non-conference games scheduled for 2014 and one for 2015. The Red Raiders are set to open the 2014 season at home against the Central Arkansas Bears on Aug. 30. Tech will pay UCA $425,000 for the game.

While the schedule for 2013 and 2014 is light on tough football programs, Texas Tech head coach Tommy Tuberville said that is not the plan for the future.

“We were just trying to get our program where we want it before we start taking on some (tougher non-conference opponents),” Tuberville said. “Now that you’ve got three non-conference games, you want to make sure you’re ready and willing to step out there and play somebody on the road like that.”

Tuberville also stated that Texas Tech will only agree to home-and-home series and will not play one-game contracts at an opponents stadium. The Red Raiders will entertain offers for a neutral site game, however, and one such offer was to play an SEC team in Houston. They have had discussions with ESPN for the game, but nothing has materialized.

Comments (3)

Wow! Texas Tech really never gets to take a week off. Props to the Red Raiders for another challenging ooc schedule. This will mark the 16th consecutive season that NOBODY in the B12 will play better ooc competition than Tech. But this is what you do when you’re competing for national titles. Tech will recapture the glory year’s of the border conference real soon. Guns up!