Time for Texas Tech football to embrace the rally possum | Giese
A large roar came from the Jones AT&T Stadium crowd Thursday night. Not for a touchdown, a defensive stop or seeing Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark in the house.
What elicited the reaction was none other than a possum. A thicc boi possum, at that.
The possum frolicked onto the field and, based on video footage from the FS1 broadcast, was as happy as could be. There he was, surrounded by 51,185 adorning fans there to see him in all his glory.
The fun was quickly spoiled, though. Animal control came and wrangled the rascal, dragging him — you can see the claws digging into the turf in the photo from incomparable Avalanche-Journal photographer Annie Rice — out of the stadium. That was before, however, the critter got a pet from Texas Tech University president Lawrence Schovanec.
From chatting with Yormak to petting a possum. Schovanc had an eventful night.
As did the Texas Tech football team. The possum sighting preceded a 20-7 halftime lead and an eventual 35-28 win over TCU to keep their bowl hopes alive for another week.
This story shouldn't seem all that unusual. After all, Texas Tech was 4-5 through nine games last season and won its last four contests, including the Texas Bowl against Ole Miss.
With the victory over the Horned Frogs, the Red Raiders have played nine games. Their record? Another 4-5 mark with three more regular season games to go, plus a bowl game, should they get there.
Through all the ruckus of the 2023 season, the Red Raiders are exactly where they were in 2022. This year, though, can be different for one reason: the rally possum.
Creatures of the night and garbage can be a bad omen if one chooses to see it that way. But this is West Texas, land of desert and cactus. Why can't a possum, which has probably set up shop somewhere among the chaos of the South end zone construction project, be the symbol of hope for a better tomorrow?
Look at it this way: when the possum — let's call him Frank — first got onto the field, he was happy just to be there, the whole world a possibility for him. That matches how the Red Raiders began the season: hopeful, joyous and ready to tackle the world.
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Tech's first eight games are animal control, getting reeled in and hauled off, people writing Frank off as just some schmuck mammal who didn't belong with the the people. Frank was a fraud, just like the Red Raiders were.
But Frank will have another chapter.
According to a Tech spokesman, he was taken away and handled humanely, maybe in a luxury animal condo with his own personal mini heater to keep warm before being set free. That is Tech's next three games.
Sure, it seems daunting to win two more games. An upset will have to come against either Kansas or Texas. Much like Frank, though, the Red Raiders can decide to be fighters, to let their story unfold before the eyes of America's homebodies watching on TV.
Frank is Texas Tech just as the Red Raiders are Frank. They need each other now more than ever, and it's time to rally around the possum.
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This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Time for Texas Tech football to embrace the rally possum | Giese
