Texas Tech bowl bound after missing last season

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Associated Press

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) - 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.