Texas Tech football closed out their nonconference schedule with a 45-14 win over Oregon State at home this past Saturday.
In those first three games, the Red Raiders outscored their opponents 174-35 as none of those games were even competitive.
Out of the three, Oregon State put up the biggest fight, but it was clear Texas Tech was just on another level in yet another blowout win.
The Red Raiders had 599 total yards of offense, and the defense held the Beavers to only eight total rushing yards while also forcing two turnovers through the air.
Defensively, they forced Oregon State to be one dimensional by completely suffocating their run game, which Head Coach Joey McGuire and his players talked about in the postgame press conference, “There was nowhere to run,” McGuire said. “It seemed like as soon as they got the ball and got anywhere near the line of scrimmage, you either had [Jayden] Cofield or AJ [Holmes Jr] or Lee [Hunter] or Skyler [Gill-Howard], they were meeting in the back field.”
Their inability to run opened the pass rush up as well, which led to three sacks and 11 quarterback hits.
The majority of those came from the stellar defensive line, who junior cornerback Brice Pollock credited for making his life easier.
“It changes a lot, it helps me. I love my d-line. It just allows you to know the ball’s coming out fast, so you can sit on routes,” Pollock said. “You can't just depend on them to get there every time, but it definitely helps your technique a lot. You can trust yourself to break, you don’t have to worry about certain stuff like double moves because they don’t have time for stuff like that, so it really does help a lot.”
Pollock used their aid to his advantage, as he picked off Oregon State quarterback Maalik Murphy twice in the game.
The defensive position groups are playing complementary football, and firing on all cylinders, and so is the offensive unit.
The Red Raiders pass game stole the show against the Beavers as senior quarterback Behren Morton threw for 464 yards, four touchdowns and one interception, completing 23 of 35 pass attempts.
They had a trio of players go over the century mark in receiving yardage and four different players catch a touchdown.
Junior wide receiver Coy I iakin led the team in receiving yards with 136 on six catches and a touchdown, while sophomore running back J'Koby Williams had seven catches for 116 yards and a touchdown.
Junior tight end Terrance Carter Jr had six catches for 102 yards and a touchdown and the final Red Raider to record a receiving touchdown was senior wide receiver Caleb Douglas, who had one catch for a 61 -yard touchdown.
Texas Tech’s rushing attack only averaged 3.2 yards a cany, but the running back duo of J'Koby Williams and sophomore Cameron Dickey still had good nights.
Dickey was the leading rusher with 77 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown, while Williams had 13 carries for 48 yards and touchdown to pair with his receiving contributions.
All and all, it was a great night, but the offense did face adversity and seem a little out of sync at times.
Morton threw his first interception of the season, and the offense committed many penalties, but the Red Raiders quarterback welcomed the adversity. “It’s a good feeling just to see adversity. This is the first time we’ve got punched in the mouth too. I thought we responded well,” Morton said. ‘That was a real football team, and we ’ve got some things to clean up, but it was good to see.”
It was the first strife the team experienced this season, but a great learning experience in preparation for Big 12 Conference play.
Texas Tech as a whole team will need to clean up the penalties after committing 10 for 80 yards on Saturday, but if they can stay disciplined in areas such as that, the sky is the limit.
“I’m standing on the sideline with Lee Hunter and Romello [Height], and they’ve got their hands on my shoulders going ‘coach, we’re really good. Let’s not miss this opportunity,”’ Joey McGuire said. “When you’ve got old guys talking that way, then you’ve got a chance to be really good.”
They’ll get the chance to take a big step towards seizing the opportunity and maximizing their potential in their next game against the Utah Utes.
It’s a top 20 matchup between 16th ranked Utah and 17th ranked Texas Tech, that has not only Big 12 Championship implications, but also College Football Playoff implications.
“We’re going to play a great football team, Utah’s one of the best teams in the country and they’ve got possibly the best offensive line in the country,” Mc-Guire said. “We’re playing them at their place, 1 hear it’s an absolutely incredible environment. We’ll face some adversity, but these guys will respond.”
The two teams will face off on Saturday at 11:00am in Salt I^ake City at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
The game will be available to watch on FOX.