Longtime GoCoogs contributors Matt Hogan and Zeke Riser look back at the Texas Tech game from 2009. The 29-28 win cemented the legacy of Case Keenum and put the college football world on notice.
Matt Hogan – Redshirt Freshman: In the Texas Tech game in 2009, Hogan handled kickoffs.
My memories are mainly about the hype coming into the game and the atmosphere during it. We’d just beaten Oklahoma State two weeks prior in Stillwater. The day before, we moved up to #17 in the AP Poll and made the Coaches Poll for the first time. We were #23 in it.
On the Monday of game week, most of us on the team were finishing our early morning workout when we saw the line for student tickets. At 6 a.m., the line out of the Alumni Athletics Center to buy tickets was wrapped around the building!
That definitely gave us some extra juice during practice that week, not to mention it’s always great to play a P5 team from the state of Texas. Most guys on our team felt overlooked by the P5s coming out of high school.
Zeke Riser – True Freshman: Riser started as a true freshman in the 2009 season.
I played 93 snaps (defense + special teams) according to the grade sheet we’d get after games. The biggest thing I remember is the fans rushing the field. I also took a ton of pictures with people that I didn’t know.
The funniest thing was that some of the helmets were stolen that night, and they had to offer rewards for people to bring them back hahaha.
Kevin Sumlin addressed the stolen helmets in his Monday press conference: “We have not gotten the helmets back. There’s still time; we don’t play until Saturday, and we don’t leave until Friday. We’d love to get them back.”
Hogan: I wasn’t contributing much at the time to the team and was a kickoff specialist and had a few kickoffs in that game. In the 3rd quarter, Tech was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct on Bryce Beall’s TD run, so I got to kick from the 45 instead of the 30. But I got so excited to crush a kick that I wrapped my foot around it and kicked it out of bounds. D’oh!
Luckily, the penalty for kicking it out of bounds is that the ball is placed 30 yards from where the kick was taken. So because of their penalty, the ball was placed at the 25-yard line, essentially saving my ass and making me feel a bit better after an awful kick.
Riser: I remember Brandon Carter, the guard who wore all the face paint…I think he’s a professional wrestler now. On the goalline stand, I remember trying to get as low as I could, so I got my shoulder pad on his hip and drove as hard as possible.
While on the ground, their running back, Baron Batch stepped on me to try to push the pile forward into the end zone. After the game, one of the numbers on my jersey had a big clear mark on it. That was pretty funny.
Hogan: The goalline stand was one of the most exciting times I’ve been a part of as a Cougar. When we stuffed them on 4th and goal from the 1, that final drive, and when the game ended, and everyone rushed the field – that was utter chaos.
There is nothing like a big-time win on your home turf where you celebrate with the fans.
Read More on the Tech game: Case & The Coogs With An Epic Comeback
