Texas Tech back to a bowl after losing season last year, playing Minnesota in game in Houston

LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech is back in a bowl game, a year after the Red Raiders ended a streak of 11-straight postseason appearances.

Texas Tech travels to Houston to take on Minnesota of the Big Ten in the Meineke Car Care Bowl on Dec. 28.

Minnesota (6-6) and Texas Tech (7-5) played each other in the 2006 Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., when the Gophers blew a 31-point lead and lost 44-41 in OT. It was the largest comeback in Division I-A bowl history.

The Red Raiders will need to stem a downward spiral — one that plagued them this year and last. This season, they lost four of their last five games by a combined score of 197-112, and needed two overtimes at home to topple Big 12 cellar dweller Kansas in their lone win down the stretch.