2010-2011
College Football Season
TicketCity Bowl
Post-Game

Game Recap

by CFP Staff
January 1, 2011

In the first college football game of 2011, Texas Tech staved off Northwestern's frantic rally from a 31-9 deficit and held on to win 45-38 in the inaugural TicketCity Bowl.

The Wildcats cut the Red Raider lead to 38-31 with 10:33 left but Taylor Potts' 4th TD pass (he also ran for a score) made it 45-31 just 3:20 later.

A 39-yard interception return for a touchdown got Northwestern back to within 7 with 5-and-half minutes still left to play, but only 25 seconds remained when it got the ball back again on its own 24-yard line.

The loss extended the nation's longest bowl losing streak to 8 games for the Wildcats. Northwestern last won a bowl game at the end of the 1948 season and is 1-8 in its bowl history.

Texas Tech's first season under Tommy Tuberville ended with an 8-5 record. The Red Raiders were 9-4 a year ago under the co9mbination of Mike Leach and Ruffin McNeill. Leach was 8-4 in the regular season and McNeill served as interim head coach in their Alamo Bowl win over Michigan State.

The TicketCity Bowl filled the void that was left for the famed Cotton Bowl stadium when the Cotton Bowl game moved to Arlington beginning with the 2009 season. The game's original name was the Dallas Football Classic, but the bowl announced on November 8th that TicketCity, a leader in the secondary ticket industry for more than 20 years, had become the title sponsor

The matchup featured a pair of teams that finished the regular season with identical 7-5 records overall and conference marks of 3-5.

Texas Tech improved to 12-21-1 all-time in bowl games, and has won 7 of its last 9. Tuberville's own bowl record improved to 7-3.

It was the first meeting between these teams.