Take Two: Is Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury off the hot seat?

CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

CLASS OF 2020 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position

Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.

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Entering this season, there was a lot of talk that Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury was on the proverbial hot seat and needed to win quickly to save his job in Lubbock.

Kingsbury was 30-33. He had three losing seasons out of five, including two in a row. The former Red Raiders quarterback was loved in town, but he was not making the program a consistent winner.

The heat turned up even more after Texas Tech lost to Ole Miss by 20 points to start the season, but since that time the Red Raiders have been on a roll. Freshman quarterback Alan Bowman has been a special find and they’re coming off a surprising 41-17 win at Oklahoma State. Texas Tech is 3-1 and is ranked No. 25 in the AP poll.

But is Kingsbury’s job safe yet? West Virginia visits Lubbock this weekend and Texas Tech still has TCU, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas State and others on the schedule.

“While Saturday’s cathartic romp in Stillwater was easily the Red Raiders’ best team performance in Kliff Kingsbury’s time as head coach, I don’t think any one game this season will determine his ultimate fate. No one in Texas Tech’s administration is looking for a reason to move on from Kingsbury – as evidenced by the announcement of his return in the immediate aftermath of last season’s win at Texas – but everyone involved recognizes that it will be difficult to justify keeping him if the team doesn’t show improvement in 2018. Kingsbury has just two more years left on his contract, so the expectation is that his deal will either be extended or terminated after the season. As impressive as the Red Raiders were against Oklahoma State, December is still a long way away."

“He was on a hot seat. He was on a very warm seat, at least. He needed to win. This was a big win against Oklahoma State. They’ve done a really good job with the quarterback situation. They have a true freshman in there now who’s picking it up and getting it. If that’s the case, they’re going to be pretty good in the future with that guy to build around. I think he’s off the hot seat now, but he was definitely on it at one point.”