Texas Tech Football Needs to Step Up the Competition

The best advice I can give Texas Tech Football is that they need to play better teams.

What if I told you that the best way to be a heavyweight champ was to beat up high school kids? It sounds silly, but essentially that's what Texas Tech does to start every year. I get the whole concept of playing an easier team because it allows you to try different things, to keep the team healthy and so on. What it doesn't get you is respect or in the running for a championship.

No one, other than actual Tech fans, is talking about their "big" win over Stephen F. Austin today (and if they are, it's because of that coach flippin' the middle finger to fans). Instead, college football fans with loyalties to the sport are talking about UT beating Notre Dame. Today, Texas is the front page headline story on ESPN.com. Yesterday's results from the Texas Tech game weren't anywhere on the front page.

The idea that Tech learns how to play against stronger competitors by thrashing weaker ones is ridiculous. Sure, you may learn your plays, but that should be done before they ever step on the field. For Tech to step up and get the respect they deserve, they need to kick these easy wins and easy paydays to the curb and start playing some real competition. Even a loss to a ranked team is better than a win against a pushover.

Admittedly, Texas Tech is doing a little better in this department with Arizona State and Louisiana Tech next on the schedule, but if the Red Raiders ever truly want to be in contention for next-level competition, weak teams on their schedule will very much count against them.

Let's take a little lesson from the legendary wrestler Ric Flair: "To be the man, you have to beat the man."