|
By Joe Gulick
Avalanche-Journal
After a 10-2 season and Southwest Conference co-championship in 1976, Texas Tech began the 1977 season ranked eighth in the nation.
Hopes were extremely high, but Tech suffered a big blow in the third game of the season, a 33-17 home loss to Texas A&M. Quarterback Rodney Allison suffered a broken bone in his leg that put him on the sidelines for five weeks.
The team pulled together, winning the next three of the four games it played without Allison but losing to Texas 26-0 in Austin.
Allison returned on Nov. 5 against TCU and led the Raiders to a 49-17 victory. In a Nov. 7 cartoon, Moss said, “One leg or two legs — Allison is the only quarterback we got.”
When this cartoon was printed on Nov. 10, 1977, Texas was ranked No. 1 in the nation, A&M was No. 11 and Tech was No. 18. The Raiders, 6-2, were headed to Dallas to play SMU.
Tech smothered SMU 45-7, but that was the last time the Red Raiders rolled a strike in 1977. Tech lost the next two games to Houston and Arkansas and finished 7-4 in the regular season.
Tech played Florida State in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Fla., but the Seminoles overwhelmed the Raiders 40-17 in Steve Sloan’s final game as Tech head coach.
This is probably the only time Moss ever faced the reader, but Dirk taped his mouth shut because of the quarterback remark.
Previous Dirk West Cartoons
|
