Texas Tech struggled in 1971, which was Dirk West's first year to use the revamped "Raider Red" version of the Texas Tech mascot.

West would soon establish a tradition of drawing the number of holes in the Raider's hat to correspond with the number of losses or ties Tech had up to that point of the season, but he had not fully set that here.

This cartoon ran on Nov. 1, 1971, two days after the injury-hampered Red Raiders had been upset 9-7 by Rice in a lackluster homecoming game. It gave Tech a 3-5 record, but Dirk drew six holes in the hat.

Texas A&M had beaten Arkansas 17-9 in what was to be Aggie head coach Gene Stallings' last season at A&M. "Bebes" was a nickname of Stallings that dated back to his childhood when his brother used it because he couldn't pronounce "Baby Gene."

Texas Tech finished the 1971 season with a 4-7 record in Jim Carlen's second year as Texas Tech head football coach.