SAN ANTONIO – Steven Sheffield took the field on Oct. 3 and helped Texas Tech turn its season around, leading the Red Raiders to three straight victories in place of injured quarterback Taylor Potts.

The former walk-on turned a similar trick at the Alamo Bowl on Saturday night, leading the Red Raiders to a win they won’t soon forget.
Sheffield, who hadn’t played since a loss at Oklahoma State on Nov. 14, entered the game after Michigan State took a four-point lead with about eight minutes remaining. He promptly engineered a 77-yard scoring drive that he capped with a go-ahead touchdown pass to Detron Lewis, and Tech continued to dominate the final minutes in a 41-31 victory before 64,757 fans at the Alamodome.

“I’ve been excited to redeem myself since Oklahoma State, when I went in and played a horrible game,” said Sheffield, who finished 9-of-11 passing for 88 yards and the score. “My foot’s been getting better and better, and excited is the best word to (describe it). I’ve wanted to be on the field since day one. … In my mind, I wanted to start and I wanted to play every down. I was just excited to go in.”

Potts, who passed for two touchdowns and an Alamo Bowl-record 372 yards to earn offensive most valuable player honors, threw an interception early in the fourth quarter that led to a Brett Swenson field goal that gave Michigan State a 31-27 lead. But that’s not why he came out of the game.

He said he took a hit that caused him to lose vision in one of his eyes, so the Tech coaches deemed him unfit to return to the field. Potts said he would have preferred to finish the game, but he also said he was confident Sheffield would come through.

So was Lincoln Riley, Tech’s inside receivers coach who served as acting offensive coordinator.

“He’s got the ice water in his veins,” said Riley, who also praised Potts’ performance. “He’s come through for us all year, and I knew putting him in in a pressure situation, I knew he would get it done.”

Shortly after the go-ahead score, Tech safety Franklin Mitchem intercepted Michigan State quarterback Kirk Cousins at the Spartans’ 35-yard line. Baron Batch sealed the win with his second TD run a few minutes later, after Sheffield kept the short drive alive with a pair of fourth-down completions.

The result was Tech’s third consecutive nine-win season and a satisfying end to a tumultuous week. Longtime head coach Mike Leach was fired by the university only three days earlier, but defensive coordinator-turned-interim head coach Ruffin McNeill rallied the Red Raiders and helped them overcome a feisty Michigan State team that was missing 14 players who were suspended or dismissed in the wake of a campus dormitory fight on Nov. 22.

“This was the most challenging week I’ve had in my 29 years of coaching. It was a fun challenge, though,” said McNeill, who got endorsements from several Tech players to become the team’s permanent head coach. “This was the most rewarding night of my coaching career.”

Tech (9-4) raced out to a 10-point lead and never trailed in the first half, but the back-and-forth game was close throughout. Michigan State (6-7) took its first lead less than three minutes into the third quarter, when Keith Nichol’s 7-yard run capped a short drive set up by Eric Stephens’ fumble on the opening kickoff of the second half, and the lead changed hands three more times.

The Red Raiders gained 579 total yards – their most in a bowl game since the 1995 Copper Bowl – and were just as effective running the ball as throwing it. Batch rushed for 100 yards on 22 carries and added 85 yards on six receptions.

Lewis finished with 114 receiving yards and the winning score on 10 catches, Lyle Leong added a TD reception and kept the go-ahead drive alive with a 43-yard grab on third-and-12, and Austin Zouzalik hauled in a 50-yard flea flicker from Potts to set up a second-quarter score.

The Spartans had their moments on offense, too. Freshman Edwin Baker rushed for 97 yards and a long touchdown, and versatile receiver Keshawn Martin had a TD reception and also threw a scoring pass out of the wildcat formation, immediately after Swenson threw for a 19-yard completion on a fake field goal.

Blair White finished with 114 yards and a TD receiving for the Spartans, and Cousins threw for 220 yards and a score.

“We tried to do what we could do out there, and I think it was an exciting game if you watched it,” said Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio, whose team lost its fourth consecutive bowl game. “But it’s tough when you come up short. It’s not easy.”

Despite allowing 396 total yards, two long scores and 149 kickoff-return yards by Martin, Tech’s defense and special teams stiffened when they had to. Daniel Howard blocked a second-quarter field-goal attempt that would have tied the game, and after the Raiders took the lead, they didn’t allow another first down.

“They threw a lot of new things at us, and I think we as a secondary adjusted well,” said Tech cornerback Jamar Wall, who had six tackles, two pass breakups and an interception en route to defensive MVP honors. “They got us on a few plays here and there, but our overall coverage was acceptable.”

It all added up to gratifying and memorable win for the Red Raiders, who easily could have lost focus with all the turmoil surrounding Leach’s dismissal. But instead of cracking under the spotlight or splintering as a team, they stuck together and rallied around McNeill and each other.

Batch called it an “awesome” way to end an up-and-down week and season, and he wasn’t the only Tech player who felt that way.

“This whole week’s been crazy, but the type of team we have, we never gave up, never lost focus,” Potts said. “We never thought about losing. We never thought, ‘It doesn’t matter if we lose. Nobody will blame us because of what we’ve been through.’

“All we wanted to do was win, and we came out here and did it.”