ARLINGTON, Texas—Mike Leach and the Texas Tech Red Raiders have seen and heard so much about the new Cowboys Stadium that playing Baylor there on Saturday isn’t enough to satisfy them.
They’d love to play their following game there, too—in the first Cotton Bowl held at the new $1.2 billion showplace.
Although the Alamo or Holiday bowls are more likely destinations for the Red Raiders (7-4, 4-3 Big 12), the Cotton Bowl remains a possibility. They must beat the Bears (4-7, 1-6) and get some other games to go their way, plus hope the selection committee picks them over some Big 12 candidates.
Still, it could happen. And there’s no better way to impress the selection committee than coming into their home (game headquarters are even in the building) and putting on a show, one week after beating Oklahoma 41-13.
“We’ve got to play the best game we can, if for no other reason (than) you’re not heading anywhere if you don’t improve each week,” Leach said.
Tech has won the last 13 meetings, including a narrow escape last season in Lubbock. Now the series heads into a two-year experiment of playing on neutral turf in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which is fertile recruiting ground and home to many alumni.
This year’s game, which was supposed to be in Waco, will be at Cowboys Stadium. It’s a sellout expected to draw more than 70,000.
Next year’s game, which was supposed to be in Lubbock, will be at the Cotton Bowl, held during the State Fair, the week after Texas and Oklahoma play there.
Leach said his input on moving the series was “between little and none.” His overall take on the neutral site: “It’s better than going to Baylor; it’s not as good as being at Jones Stadium.”
“We’d rather play here,” Leach said of Lubbock. “With all due respect to the stadium and all that, if you’re given the choice, you’d rather play here. I think it’s kind of a wash, really. You lose a game at your place, but you don’t go to the other fellow’s place, so it’s somewhere in the middle.”
For Baylor, this game ends what had been a promising season before star quarterback Robert Griffin tore a knee ligament in the third game. Instead of capping this season with their first bowl since 1994, as the Bears had hoped, they will try simulating a postseason experience with this fancy setting and huge crowd.
They’ve got to do something special to bid farewell to linebacker Joe Pawelek, who will set a school record with his 46th straight start. He has the most career tackles of all active college players and is second only to Mike Singletary in school history.
“It is hard just seeing it all come down to a close and knowing that this is the last game, but I think that these kinds of games really test your character,” Pawelek said. “Whenever things aren’t perfect, what kind of guy are you going to be? Hopefully, from a senior’s perspective ... we don’t want to leave that legacy of this group of guys when it got rough they just turned it in.”
