A Texas Tech Football Season In Review: 1989

by Seth C on May 29, 2007 5:45 AM CDT in Football

1984 through 1992 Texas Tech Football helmet, courtesy Helmet Project

Editor's Note: Sadly, I am not a Texas Tech football historian. Because there are so few internet references I am looking at the Texas Tech media guide and looking at the years before and the years after to have an understanding of the importance of the season of the current review. If anyone has anything to add, I encourage you to leave a comment, you'd be helping me by educating me, but you'd also probably be educating a number of other Texas Tech fans.

A Texas Tech Football Season In Review . . .

The Year: 1989

The Record: 9-3

The Bowl Game: All American Bowl

September 9: Arizona (20), W, 24-14
September 16: New Mexico, W, 27-20
September 23: @ Oklahoma State, W, 31-15
September 30: @ Baylor, L, 15-29
October 7: Texas A&M (19), W, 27-24
October 14: Arkansas, L, 13-25
October 21: Rice, W, 41-25
November 4: @ Texas, W, 24-17
November 11: TCU, W, 37-7
November 18: @ SMU, W, 48-24
November 25: @ Houston (13), L, 24-40
December 28: Duke (20), W, 49-21

This was arguably Spike Dykes' best year, his 2nd year as the head coach. An incredibly amazing ride as the Red Raiders were able to beat Arizona, Texas A&M and Duke, all ranked teams. This was also Spike's 3rd season as the Texas Tech head coach. In 1987 he was only able to manage a 6-4-1 record and in 1988 a losing record of 5-6. You think there's any doubt that Spike felt the pressure and needed a winning season? Perhaps too, it was a combination of finally getting some of his players that he recruited into place that finally paid off.

It's obvious that the play of running back James Gray was instrumental in the success of this team. The problem is that success didn't last. Tech managed only a 4-7 record in 1990, but played 5 ranked teams that year (Ohio State, Houston, A&M, Miami, Fla., and Texas). Spike hovered in mediocrity for a number of years thereafter:

1991: 6-5
1992: 5-6
1993: 6-6
1994: 6-6

I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that 1989 led to much of Dyke's longevity at Texas Tech. He beat Texas and the Aggies in the same year, not to mention ranked Arizona and Duke. Although I do not recall that season in particular, this was the year that cemented Spike as a West Texas and Texas Tech legend.

When picking a season, this year just jumped out at me, there was no rhyme or reason to me choosing this particular year, but I find it utterly amazing that it wouldn't be a stretch to say that it literally took one year to create this legend of Spike Dykes. Think about it, only 5 winning records out of 13 seasons. Compare that to Leach, 6 seasons, 6 winning records.

That my friends is the greatness of Leach. Rather than mediocrity, Leach has made Texas Tech relevant. Taking a look back into the history of this institution, Spike created a certain amount of success that I do believe helped Leach create a winning atmosphere, but what Leach has done is amazing and when taken into perspective with what the coaches before him did, it's so impressive, oh so impressive. To say that Leach isn't secure is ridiculous, in fact it's ludicrous. If anything, it is a matter of Leach's wandering eye, if he has one, but not a result of his team's performance on the football field.

This isn't to take anything away from Coach Dykes. He was a savior himself, which we'll get to when we review the year 1976, he turned around a miserable program, a program that was languishing in losing records and coaches that couldn't win in conference. Remember this, we are damn lucky to have Coach Dykes who started Tech on the winning path and Coach Leach who has continued and improved what Dykes started, especially when we consider where this program has been over the years.

I apologize for the digression.

Back to 1989. The unfortunate part of this little project is that there are so few stats or box scores from games prior to the internet, thus it's hard to gather what this team really accomplished. Nevertheless, I've given it my best from my limited resources. You'll also note that there are almost no defensive statistics available. I just haven't been able to find them.

Here's a photo of the helmet used during this year.

Image from Southwest Conference Helmets

Some gracious soul has posted two YouTube clips from that 1989 Texas Tech team. The first highlight reel is from when the Red Raiders beat the Longhorns:

The next clip are the highlights from Tech's victory over Duke in the All-American Bowl:

Random Notes from the Media Guide:

James Gray rushed for 5 touchdowns versus Rice.
James Gray was the most valuable player in the All-American Bowl.
Charles Ordine was a 1st team All-American tackle while James Gray was a 2nd team All-American running back.
Tom Mathiasmeir was an academic All-American defensive end.
Tracy Saul was a 1st team freshman All-American.
All Southwest Conference: RB, James Gray; OG, Nathan Richburg; OT, Charles Odiorne; C, Len Wright; DE, Tom Mathiasmeier; LB, Charles Rowe; DB, Sammy Walker; DT, Charles Perry; KR, Tracy Saul.
Team Awards:
- Pete Cawthon Memorial Team MVP Award: James Gray.
- Dell Morgan Memorial Courage Award: Clifton Winston.
- Donny Anderson Sportsmanship Award: Charles Odiorne, OT; Charles Perry, DT.
- E.J. Holub Double Tough Leadership Award: James Gray, RB.
- Dare to Be Great Award: Tommy Webb, OT.
- JT King Award (Most Improved Player): Anthony Lynn, RB.
- Clint Ramsey Academic Efford Award: Tommy Webb, OT.
James Gray had a number of single game rushing records in 1989 and is 4th all time at Texas Tech where he rushed for 1,509 in a single season, is 5th all time is single season rushing attempts, and had 20 touchdowns in 1989:
- 280 yards against Duke
- 234 yards against Arizona
- 232 yards against SMU
- 227 yards against Rice
- 209 yards against TCU
Quarterback Jamie Gill led the team with 12 passing touchdowns and finished the year with 105 completions, 186 attempts and 1,464 passing yards.
Travis Price led the team in receiving with 23 receiptions for 389 yards and 5 touchdowns.
Lin Elliott had 34 PAT's that year, which is still tied for 9th all time at Tech.
Freshman, Tracy Saul returned 30 punts for a 10.0 yard average.
This Tech team had the most takeaways for a Red Raider ball club in a season with 35 and the Tech opponents that year lost 16 fumbles.
Team Stats:
- Scoring Offense: 311 points for 28.3 points per game.
- Rush Offense: 2,505 yards for 227.7 yards per game.
- Pass Offense: 1,634 yards for 148.5 yards per game.
- Total Offense: 4,139 yards for 376.3 yards per game.
- Scoring Defense: 260 points for 23.6 points allowed per game.
- Rushing Defense: 1,481 yards for 134.6 yards allowed per game.
- Passing Defense: 2,879 yards for 261.7 yards allowed per game.
- Total Defense: 4,360 yards for 396.4 yards allowed per game.

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1989 Season in Review

I'd like to make a few comments about your take on the 1989 season.

I don't know if anyone else remembers this, but my recollection is that both the UT and A&M wins were a result of late, long touchdown passes by Jamie Gill in something like 3rd and 26 situations. (Strangely enough, I still remember Brent Musberger calling the Ohio State game in the following season and quoting the media guide about Tech's third and long touchdown passes.) Those two plays-- and the running of James Gray-- and the bowl win-- made the season.

James Gray was a great football player, and even more, a solid person. He's still one of my all time favorites at Tech.

At the time, the victory over Duke was Tech's first bowl win since 1973.

I think it is an overstatement to say Coach Dykes' longevity at Tech was the result of this one season. You hit it on the head when you mentioned Dykes' responsibility for a turnaround in Tech football. Here, in my view, is the significance of Dykes' tenure:

He restored stablility and respectability to the program after the mostly poor years of Rex Dockery, the truly awful years of Jerry Moore, and the David McWilliams fiasco. This was a major program turnaround.
He made Tech a consistent winner again. Tech was never really an upper eschelon team, but for a long time we were a consistent winner and a regular in second tier bowl appearances. But for most of the 80s, until Dykes took over, we were bona fide losers. Those 6-6 teams that you label as mediocre were 6-5 regular season teams with a bowl loss. Maybe we're splitting hairs on the mediocrity issue, but at least with Dykes we always went into a season with some hope and the likelihood of a few quality wins. That was a lot after the long dry spell.
Check the record-- Dykes was the first coach we had who beat UT and A&M on a fairly regular basis. I think I'm pretty sound in this claim, but we had more wins against those two teams during Dykes tenure than we ever had before. For the Tech program, this was a significant achievement. Admittedly, UT had some rough years during this time, but that shouldn't diminish Dykes' accomplishment. (By the way, Dykes has a better conference winning percentage than Leach. Ok, I know we're talking SWC versus Big 12, but hey, it's something.)
Finally, he was a heck of a likeable guy, genuine, good with the media, and a great fit for the Texas Tech community.

I think you touched on it, but I would reiterate that Dykes set the stage for Leach and can claim a good deal of the foundational credit for where the program is today. Thanks for letting me have a say.

Vinny from Dumas
TTU '84 (the lean years)

by vinny61 on May 30, 2007 5:47 PM CDT 0 recs

Thank you for posting this response

That's what I really lacked when I reviewed 1989 and what I will lack on almost every season. I personally have no recollection or personal knowledge of this season. My only reference is the Texas Tech media guide. Coach Dykes was before my time and everything I have been able to deduce is from looking at the records of the teams before and after 1989 as well as looking at the stats.

Yes, James Gray was a beast, he was literally unstoppable for the entire year. That's obvious just from the stats alone and it's unfortunate that these are the only two clips of Gray that I've ever seen. It makes it even better that Gray was a great person, this certainly adds to his legend in my mind.

I never wanted to diminish what Dykes did at Tech. In fact, in my first draft of this review, I first began to think that Dykes was a mediocre coach in comparison to Leach, or rather, compared to today's expectations of Leach.

But then I started to look at what really happened and I quickly realized that Dykes did the near impossible. He resurrected a program that was on life support. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Dykes and did not mean to diminish what he did, but rather to show all of those Red Raider fans who complain that Leach hasn't taken Tech to the next level that it hasn't ever happened at Tech. Ever.

Steve Sloan and Jim Carlen were pretty good coaches in their own right, especially Sloan, but after Sloan left the Tech program was abysmal. Dykes brought back this program.

Once again, I really appreciate you taking the time to post your comments. At the end of the basketball season I promised myself that I would be a better historian of the Texas Tech football program and this was my first attempt at educating myself. Because of my lack of personal knowledge, I need all of the help I can get. Thanks again.

Go Raiders . . .

by Seth C on May 30, 2007 7:30 PM CDT up 0 recs