Texas Tech football kicked off their season with a dominant 67-7 win over Arkansas Pine-Bluff at home in front of a sellout crowd.
The Red Raiders did anything and everything that they wanted offensively and implemented a fast tempo, which resulted in 610 yards of total offense, with 314 yards through the air and 296 yards on the ground.
Senior quarterback Behren Morton threw for 201 yards and four touchdowns with an 80% completion rate in just a quarter and a half of playing time.
He connected with junior tight end Terrance Carter Jr for a pair of touchdowns, while also finding senior wide receiver Reggie Virgil and junior wide receiver Coy Eakin for pay dirt in the end zone.
Morton had to exit the game midway in the second quarter due to a defender hyperextending his knee on a tackle, but Head Coach Joey McGuire says all his tests have come back clean and he’s just dealing with soreness.
They’re taking it day-by-day and his availability this weekend against Kent State is still unknown, but the injury is definitely short term.
The run game was also clicking on all cylinders as they had four players rush for over 50 yards, including sophomore running back Cameron Dickey, freshman running back Adam Hill, freshman quarterback Will Hammond and sophomore running back J’Koby Williams.
Dickey, Hammond and Williams all scored a touchdown on the ground as well.
The blowout provided an opportunity for numerous players who were second, third or fourth stringers to gain valuable playing time and experience, which Head Coach Joey McGuire addressed.
“One thing that we did is exactly what we wanted to do coming into this game, our expectation was that we were going to be able to play really well early and be able to get Will [Hammond] and Mitch [Griffis] in the game. Our plan was to run the offense,” McGuire said. “In this day and age when it’s a constant evaluation of the roster, then you have to do that. You’ve got to understand what you have not only right now, but what you have a few weeks and months from now. I was proud of the guys. I was proud of the way we ran the football, I thought we executed really well.”
Defensively, the Red Raiders held UAPB under 200 total yards of offense on the night and shut them out until a late fourth quarter garbage time touchdown.
All four of the starting senior defensive linemen David Bailey, Lee Hunter, Skyler Gill-Howard and Romello Height, recorded a 0.5 sack on the game.
Also coming up big with an interception was junior cornerback Amier Boyd.
The defense was stifling in every regard, but anyone who was watching knew that it all started with the defensive line wreaking havoc all night.
“Those guys are different, especially those four who started the game, David Bailey, Ramelo Height, Lee Hunter and Skyler Gill-Howard. They’re grown men, so explosive and physical. They really controlled the line of scrimmage,” McGuire said. “There was a lot of times where the quarterback had no time to throw the football, especially early in the game, he was getting hit almost every play.”
They led the way in a flawless defensive performance where the only real negative was the unfortunate injury to sophomore linebacker Miquel Dingle Jr, who suffered a lower-body injury.
He’s not expected to miss the entire season, but the Red Raiders will miss having him for defensive depth.
Notably, Texas Tech also blocked a punt on special teams, and they almost had two huge kickoff returns, but they were called back for holding.
They had a few more penalties on defense for being offsides and then one for presnap procedures on offense, but the special team's penalties bothered Coach McGuire the most.
“We have two really good returners in Micah Hudson and Tristian Gentry, but we have lazy people at the point of attack that got two holdings calls on two huge returns, so we’ve got to fix that,” McGuire said. “That’s a weapon and when you have that, it’s just lazy. Bad feet, bad eyes, then you panic and grab a hold of somebody.”
They’ll look to clean that up moving forward and take advantage of those return opportunities.
From start to finish the Red Raiders dominated, but the game took an extended amount of time due to a large thunderstorm cell passing through.
Luckily, they made it to halftime before the storm hit, but halftime was extended due to the storm delay that lasted over an hour.
Both teams agreed to play two eight-minute quarters out of half to get to the conclusion of the game quicker.
Unfortunately, that storm cleared most of the crowd out, but before that, Jones AT&T Stadium was packed to the brim and absolutely bumping.
Coach McGuire acknowledged the student section was jam packed more than an hour before the kickoff and just how loud the sellout crowd was, but he wasn’t the only one who noticed.
Two of Tech’s transfer starters, Skyler Gill-Howard and Terrance Carter Jr, also took notice of the fans.
“The atmosphere was absolutely amazing. To have a home game sellout, I’ve never had that before in my career,” Gill-Howard said. “I’ve experienced crowds like that but never for a home game. For the fans to come out and support us, it just means a lot.”
“I definitely loved it; I’ve never been in a sold-out crowd,” Carter Jr said. “The most people I’ve probably played in front of was like 21,000, so just seeing the atmosphere and how many people came out to support really showed a lot.”
The Texas Tech fans showed up and showed out in the blowout win, and they’ll look to do the same this week at home against Kent State.
The Saturday kickoff against the Golden Flashes is at 11:00am and will be streamed on TNT/Max.