Texas Tech Football Defense Not Getting Takeaways

As Texas Tech's football team heads into its bowl game Friday night against Minnesota, the Gophers have to be fairly confident about not getting the ball swiped when they're on offense. As I learned yesterday from a local radio sports station, the Tech defense has not registered a takeaway (i.e., defensive fumble recovery or interception) in its last five games.

That seemed to me like a long dry spell, but whenever one hears a number (in this case, the Red Raiders' five straight takeaway-free games), he or she should always ask, "Compared to what?" To answer this question, I examined the statistics for all Big 12 games this year to see how often other conference teams went takeaway-free. The results appear in the following chart, with takeaway-free games shown in white font. For each row, the focal team is listed in the left-hand column. Then, for each of its nine Big 12 games (listed across sequentially), we see the takeaways (defensive fumble recoveries, followed by interceptions) against each opponent.*

TAKEAWAYS (Def. Fumble Recoveries/Interceptions)

	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Game 4	Game 5	Game 6	Game 7	Game 8	Game 9
Baylor (vs Opp.)	0/0 WVU	0/0 TCU	0/0 TEX	1/1 ISU	0/2 KU	1/1 OU	0/3 KSU	1/3 TTU	0/2 OSU
Iowa St. (vs Opp.)	0/2 TTU	2/3 TCU	1/0 KSU	2/0 OSU	3/1 BAY	0/2 OU	0/0 TEX	3/1 KU	0/0 WVU
Kansas (vs Opp.)	4/0 TCU	0/0 KSU	0/1 OSU	1/0 OU	0/2 TEX	0/0 BAY	0/1 TTU	1/0 ISU	0/1 WVU
K-State (vs Opp.)	2/1 OU	2/3 KU	0/1 ISU	0/2 WVU	2/1 TTU	1/4 OSU	1/1 TCU	0/2 BAY	1/2 TEX
Okla. (vs Opp.)	0/0 KSU	0/3 TTU	1/2 TEX	1/2 KU	0/1 ISU	0/0 BAY	0/2 WVU	0/1 OSU	1/0 TCU
OSU (vs Opp.)	0/1 TEX	0/0 KU	1/1 ISU	1/2 TCU	0/0 KSU	2/0 WVU	1/2 TTU	1/1 OU	1/0 BAY
Texas (vs Opp.)	0/1 OSU	2/0 WVU	0/1 OU	1/1 BAY	1/0 KU	0/0 TTU	0/2 ISU	0/1 TCU	0/1 KSU
TCU (vs Opp.)	1/1 KU	0/1 ISU	2/4 BAY	0/0 TTU	1/1 OSU	1/1 WVU	1/1 KSU	1/3 TEX	1/1 OU
TexTech (vs Opp.)	1/3 ISU	1/0 OU	0/0 WVU	1/2 TCU	0/0 KSU	0/0 TEX	0/0 KU	0/0 OSU	0/0 BAY
WVU (vs Opp.)	0/1 BAY	1/0 TEX	1/1 TTU	0/0 KSU	2/1 TCU	0/1 OSU	1/1 OU	1/0 ISU	0/1 KU

HTML Tables

Texas Tech's five straight games without a takeaway are shown in yellow. The Red Raiders had one other takeaway-free game earlier (against West Virginia) for a total of six. The next closest team to Texas Tech in not purloining the ball was Baylor, who had three straight games (and three total) sans takeaway. At the other extreme, Kansas State took the ball away in all of its Big 12 games, for zero takeaway-free games.

Tommy Tuberville, who coached the Red Raiders during the regular season before bolting for Cincinnati, speculated in this article that, "I think we set a national record of six games without a [defensive] turnover..." However, the article could not pinpoint whether the five-game streak was an NCAA record.

UPDATE: After failing for roughly 59 minutes of their bowl game to get a takeaway, the Red Raiders intercepted a Minnesota pass in the final minute to set up the game-winning field-goal, as Texas Tech won 34-31 (stats and play-by-play).

---

*You'll notice what appear to be a few scheduling oddities. For example, TCU appears in the chart as the second conference opponent for both Baylor and Iowa State. No, the Horned Frogs were not playing at the same time in two games. Baylor and Iowa State each began conference play on September 29. The Cyclones played TCU a week later, on October 6. The Bears had a bye on October 6, so their second conference game was played on October 13, also against TCU.