Texas Tech Accepts Insight Bowl Invite
Red Raiders face Minnesota in Dec. 29 matchup in Tempe, Ariz.
Dec. 3, 2006
LUBBOCK, Texas - Texas Tech accepted an invitation from the Insight Bowl on Sunday afternoon to face the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Dec. 29 game at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz. The bowl appearance will mark the 30th in the history of the Red Raider program, which ranks 19th all-time nationally.
"We are excited to accept an invitation to play in the Insight Bowl as a reward to our student-athletes, coaches and fans," Texas Tech Director of Athletics Gerald Myers said. "We know our players will represent Texas Tech and the Big 12 at the highest level and that our fans will continue to support us at bowl games as they have done in the past."
This marks the seventh-straight season that Texas Tech has been to a bowl game, an unprecedented run in school annals, and all under seventh-year head coach Mike Leach. The 30 bowl appearances also rank fourth among Big 12 schools, behind Texas, Nebraska and Oklahoma, and ahead of fifth-place Texas A&M.;
"This selection is a credit to our team, coaching staff and fans for all of the hard work they put in this season," Head Coach Mike Leach said. "The Insight Bowl is a great bowl in a great location that provides a great matchup with the Big 12 and Big Ten conferences. We are excited about the opportunity to face Minnesota and look forward to spending some time in Phoenix"
Texas Tech leads the Big 12 Conference with 14-straight bowl eligible seasons and rank third behind Oklahoma and Texas with seven-straight appearances. The Red Raiders won three-straight bowl games from 2002-04, before narrowly falling to Alabama last season in the Cotton Bowl.
The Red Raiders finished the 2006 regular season with a 7-5 overall record and 4-4 mark in Big 12 Conference play. Tech opened the season with a 4-1 mark, before dropping back-to-back games for the first time since the 2003 season. Tech bounced back with three wins in the last five games, while the two losses to Texas and Oklahoma were by four and 10 points, respectively.
Minnesota won its final three regular-season games to finish 6-6 and qualify for the postseason for the fifth-consecutive year. The Golden Gophers have won three of their last four bowl games, including their most recent win in the 2004 Music City Bowl over Alabama.
Texas Tech coach Mike Leach is reportedly interested in taking the vacant head football coaching job at the University of Miami, numerous sources have reported.

As early as Dec. 1, reports were filtering out that Leach was open to discussing the job. Over the weekend, message boards and blogs were openly discussing the possibility that the coach, known for his wide-open offenses while at Tech, will make the jump to the Hurricanes.

Leach, whose Red Red Raiders went 7-5 this season, is slated to coach in the Insight Bowl on Dec. 29.