Texas Tech, Cal face off in 47th Independence Bowl

LOOKING FOR A THIRD-STRAIGHT BOWL WIN

• Texas Tech will be searching for a third-consecutive bowl win on Saturday as the Red Raiders defeated a pair of SEC foes in Mississippi State (2021 Liberty Bowl) and Ole Miss (2022 Texas Bowl) the previous two seasons.
• With a win over Cal, it would mark only the second time in history and the first time since the 2002-04 seasons that Texas Tech boasted bowl wins in three-consecutive seasons.
• Among teams nationally, Tech is one of nine schools that qualified for a bowl game this season after winning a bowl game in each of the past two seasons.

TWO OF NATION’S TOP RUSHERS FACE OFF

• The Independence Bowl will feature two of the nation’s top running backs this season in Texas Tech senior Tahj Brooks and Cal sophomore Jaydn Ott, who rank fourth and 13th nationally, respectively, in rushing yards this season.
• Brooks, an All-Big 12 first-team honoree, enters the Independence Bowl with 1,443 yards on the ground this season after averaging an impressive 130.6 yards per game during Big 12 play following seven 100-yard outings.
• Ott, meanwhile, led the Pac-12 with 1,260 rushing yards this season.

• 3: Texas Tech is one of only three Big 12 Conference programs to record a winning conference record each of the past two seasons, joining the likes of Kansas State and Texas.
• 23: Texas Tech will have 23 college graduates on its roster who will appear in the Independence Bowl, which includes six Red Raiders who have already obtained their master’s degree from the university.
• 139: Tahj Brooks needs 139 rushing yards in the Independence Bowl to finish third on the Texas Tech single-season rushing chart. He has rushed for at least 90 yards in each of the last 10 games this season.

RED RAIDERS IN THE INDEPENDENCE BOWL

• Texas Tech will be making its third trip to the Independence Bowl as the Red Raiders are winless in their two previous trips with both losses coming against Ole Miss. The Independence Bowl serves as an important historical moment for Texas Tech as the 1986 game marked its first under legendary head coach Spike Dykes, who led the Red Raiders to their final bowl appearance during his 13-seasons again in 1998.
• The Independence Bowl is only the second bowl outside the state of Texas to welcome the Red Raiders at least three times now in its history. Texas Tech has been to five other bowls at least three times overall with the Gator Bowl in Florida being the lone one outside the state of Texas. The Red Raiders have previously accepted nine bowl invitations from the Sun Bowl (formerly the John Hancock Bowl) as well as five invitations from the Texas Bowl, four from the Cotton Bowl and three from the Alamo Bowl.
• Not many can likely say they’ve coached and played a game in the Independence Bowl. For Texas Tech defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter, he’s done so multiple times as he took part in both the 1983 and 1984 Independence Bowls as a player at Air Force, topping Ole Miss, 9-3, the first season before returning for a 23-7 victory over Virginia Tech the following year. This will be his first return to the Independence Bowl since his playing career ended following the 1986 season. Texas Tech outside linebackers coach C.J. Ah You previously coached in the Independence Bowl as part of the Vanderbilt staff in 2017.

• Texas Tech will be making its first trip to the state of Louisiana since the Red Raiders traveled to Louisiana-Lafayette on Sept. 11, 1999, for a non-conference contest. It was actually the second trip to Louisiana in a three-game span for the Red Raiders, who ended the 1998 season in the Independence Bowl. Texas Tech routed Louisiana-Lafayette, 38-17, in the first of a home-and-home agreement between the two schools.
• The trip to the Independence Bowl will be a homecoming for two Red Raiders who hail from Shreveport in senior outside linebacker Myles Cole and freshman defensive back Macho Stevenson. The Red Raiders have two other freshmen who hail from the state of Louisiana in defensive lineman Tre’Darius Brown and linebacker Justin Horne.
• Texas Tech head strength and conditioning coach Lance Barilow previously spent time in the state of Louisiana as he was on the strength staff at LSU from 2016-19. His tenure was capped by LSU winning the 2019 CFP National Championship behind a perfect 14-0 record that featured double-digit victories in the SEC Championship and both CFP victories.

RED RAIDERS, CAL SET FOR SECOND MEETING

• Texas Tech and Cal are slated to meet for only the second time in history as the only other meeting came in the 2004 Holiday Bowl, one of the most-memorable bowl victories for the Red Raiders in school history.
• It marked the fourth victory in school history, at the time, over a top-five ranked team and the first away from Jones AT&T Stadium as the Aaron Rodgers-led Golden Bears entered at No. 4 in the polls after being previously snubbed for an appearance in the Rose Bowl.

TEXAS TECH-CAL CONNECTIONS

• Texas Tech has three defensive staff members who previously spent time at Cal with the most notable being defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter, who served in a similar role with the Golden Bears for the first four seasons under head coach Justin Wilcox from 2017-20. Defensive passing game coordinator Marcel Yates joined him at Cal for his final season as defensive backs coach, while defensive quality control coach Ryan Conry was a graduate assistant under their direction from 2019-20.
• DeRuyter took over a Cal defense that allowed 42.6 points per game in the season before his arrival and immediately cut that in half by his second year. The Bears surrendered less than 27.0 points per game during DeRuyter’s last three seasons, ranking as high as 22nd nationally in scoring defense in 2018. This is Cal’s first bowl trip since 2019 when DeRuyter was still on staff.
• In addition to at Cal, Yates also worked alongside Wilcox during four seasons together at Boise State (2006-09) where Wilcox was the defensive coordinator, while Yates was the defensive backs coach. Wilcox departed the Boise State staff following the 2009 season after the Broncos topped No. 4 TCU in the Fiesta Bowl to cap an undefeated season.
• Cal defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon and defensive line coach Andrew Browning were both on staff during DeRuyter’s tenure with the Golden Bears. Browning was promoted from a quality control coach to his current position under DeRuyter prior to the 2019 season, while was Sirmon first the inside linebackers coach in 2018 before adding co-defensive coordinator responsibilities starting with the 2019 campaign.
• DeRuyter also has familiarity with Cal wide receivers coach Burl Toler III, who was hired to his first full-time position at Fresno State during DeRuyter’s final season as head coach in 2016. Toler later rejoined DeRuyter at Cal, first as running backs coach in 2018 before moving to the wide receiver room a year later.
• Cal offensive coordinator Mike Bloesch was a senior offensive line at Houston in 2008 when Texas Tech assistant head coach Justin Johnson was entering his first season as a wide receiver for the Cougars. Bloesch worked at the high school level following the completion of his playing career with stops at Abilene Cooper and Temple High Schools.
• Texas Tech outside linebackers coach C.J. Ah You and Cal defensive backs coach Terrence Brown were both on the same Vanderbilt defensive staff in 2018. Ah You was in his final year as Vanderbilt’s defensive line coach, while Brown was in his first year as the cornerbacks’ coach for a Commodores program that played in the Texas Bowl.

CAREER NOTABLES VERSUS CAL

• Texas Tech senior defensive back Rayshad Williams is the lone Red Raider to ever play against Cal as he recorded one tackle versus the Golden Bears to wrap up the 2019 season while with UCLA. Williams did not see any action as a true freshman versus Cal in 2018 or as a sophomore during the COVID-shortened 2020 season.

THIS-N-THAT

• Jordan Brown, Gino Garcia placed on scholarship:
  • For a walk-on student-athlete, the experience of hearing you are officially on scholarship is one many don’t forget anytime soon. That is likely the case for Texas Tech senior kicker Gino Garcia and junior wide receiver Jordan Brown, who were both surprised with scholarships on Dec. 5 during a team meeting prior to the first bowl practice.
• All-Star Invites:
  • Following its appearance in the Independence Bowl, Texas Tech will have several Red Raiders turn their eyes to potential professional careers through various All-Star games. At the time of Texas Tech’s bowl announcement on Dec. 3, the Red Raiders had four players who had received All-Star game invites thus far, a list that includes senior punter Austin McNamara (Reese’s Senior Bowl), senior defensive back Dadrion Taylor-Demerson (East-West Shrine Bowl), senior outside linebacker Myles Cole (East-West Shrine Bowl) and senior outside linebacker Steve Linton.
  • Of that group, Linton is the only Red Raider who has yet to accept his All-Star game invite as he still has a year of eligibility remaining.
• What’s with the sideline tire? Many have noticed a sideline tire finding its way onto the Texas Tech sideline under Joey McGuire as a key sideline prop that signals to “stay in the fight.” The analogy is a reference to a key training scene in Creed 2 where Michael B. Jordan’s character Adonis Johnson is directed by Rocky Balboa, played by Sylvester Stallone, to put one foot inside a tire alongside his sparring partner.
• By the time the Red Raiders are set to go head-to-head with Cal, the Texas Tech football program will have boasted 16 student-athletes who earned either their undergraduate or master’s degrees as part of the university’s December graduation ceremonies.
• The Red Raiders will be facing a member of the Pac-12 Conference for the second time this season and the fourth time in a bowl game. Overall, the Red Raiders are 41-21-2 all-time against current members of the Pac-12 Conference as the only two schools Texas Tech has yet to face in its history are Stanford and UCLA.