Texas Tech has one job every year, the minimum requirement. Make a bowl season. However, since Mike Leach departed the program making a bowl game has proven far more difficult than it should for a program like Tech. Kingsbury missed numerous bowl games, and Matt Wells failed to make one at all until Sonny Cumbie carried his final team to the postseason following the midseason firing of the head ball coach.

However, Joey McGuire is 2-for-2. But more importantly, this is the third straight bowl that Texas Tech has made in a row. A true bowl streak. I talk a lot about the slow road to rebuild, and how it always starts with a few small steps. The first, and the most baby step, is making it to the bowl season every year. That first step, where making a bowl is no longer a benchmark but a guarantee, sets up all the future steps.

This season was a letdown, no one would disagree with that assessment. But the silver lining for the program is the boat keeps turning towards the goal. The ship is turning far slower than any of us watching would like, and yes, Coach McGuire is headed for troubled waters if year three is another disaster. But still, the ship is slowly but surely looking to correct course. You just have to start somewhere.