Red Raiders set to host Arizona State to open Big 12 play
September 16, 2024 3:28PM CDT
Behren Morton North Texas 640x John Altman
LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech football continues its homestand on Saturday, hosting Arizona State at 2:30 p.m. CT to kick off Big 12 play, in the second of three consecutive weekends at Jones AT&T Stadium. It will be only the fifth meeting between the two schools and their first as Big 12 foes after the Sun Devils joined the league this past summer. The Red Raiders will seek its fifth-straight win at home, dating back to last season, while also looking to break the 2-2 all-time series tie with ASU.
Television coverage will be provided by FS1 with Eric Collins behind the mic. He will be joined by Spencer Tillman in the booth serving as the broadcast analyst in the booth. Fans not using standard cable services can also access the game from their mobile or streaming device by using the FOX Sports app.
Texas Tech Sports Network will also broadcast the game over 46 affiliates throughout the state of Texas and New Mexico as Brian Jensen will have the call alongside analyst John Harris and sideline reporter Chris Level. The radio broadcast can also be heard on SiriusXM channel 158 or 199, as well as on the Varsity app.
LIMITED INVENTORY OF SINGLE-GAME TICKETS ON SALE FOR SATURDAY’S BIG 12 OPENER
- Fans still have time to lock in their seats to the Red Raiders’ Big 12 opener versus Arizona State as well as two other Saturdays (Baylor and West Virginia) as a limited inventory of single-game tickets remains on sale through the Athletic Ticket Office.
- Advanced sellouts of games against both Cincinnati (Sept. 28) and Colorado (Nov. 9) have already been announced. The Cincinnati sellout was revealed on Sept. 9 while the Colorado sellout was reported on Sept. 5. Texas Tech announced its home opener versus Abilene Christian a sellout on Aug. 29 before kickoff on Aug. 31. Meanwhile, the 11 a.m. kickoff versus North Texas had an announced attendance of 57,865, a Big 12 high among all teams in the conference that hosted on the weekend of Sept. 14.
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Tickets can be purchased online at TexasTech.com or by speaking to a ticket sales representative at 806-742-TECH.
HOME SWEET HOME FOR THE RED RAIDERS
- Week four of the college football season will already mark the third home game for Texas Tech. The Red Raiders start the season playing four of their first five games at home, including two consecutive conference games to start the season.
- The Red Raiders enter Saturday’s game against ASU having won four-straight at Jones AT&T Stadium while also sporting an impressive 12-3 record in home games under Joey McGuire.
- Texas Tech’s 12-3 start at home under McGuire matches both Steve Sloan and Spike Dykes for the second-best record through 15 games in school history behind only E.Y. Freeland.
- The Red Raiders are coming off a 66-21 victory over North Texas this past weekend, which featured 586 yards of total offense by Texas Tech as well as three takeaways by its defense.
MORTON, BROOKS READY FOR ANOTHER TEST
- Joey McGuire talked after the North Texas win about how well Behren Morton and Tahj Brooks complement each other. They’ll receive another test this weekend against an Arizona State defense that is allowing only 65.3 rushing yards per game and 270.0 yards of total offense early in the season.
- Morton, meanwhile, enters ranked fifth in the FBS with 974 passing yards and second with 10 passing touchdowns this season, while Brooks has totaled 262 yards on the ground in only six full quarters of football this season (131.0 per game).
NUMBERS TO KNOW
- 1: With a win Saturday, Texas Tech would secure its 600th victory in program history. The Red Raiders previously secured their 500th all-time win on Nov. 1, 2008, with its memorable victory over No. 1 Texas.
- 9: Texas Tech had nine different players find the end zone versus North Texas, its most in a game dating back to at least 1955 and the most for a Big 12 program versus an FBS program since 2013.
- 10: Behren Morton leads the Big 12 and ranks second in the FBS with 10 passing touchdowns, which marks the most by a Red Raider through the first three games since Patrick Mahomes II had 14 in 2016.
RED RAIDERS IN BIG 12 OPENERS
- Texas Tech is 15-13 all-time in Big 12 openers as the Red Raiders have started their conference schedule with a loss in four of the past five seasons and seven of the last 10 years overall. The Red Raiders’ lone wins during that stretch came in 2016 versus Kansas, 2018, at Oklahoma State and in 2022 with an overtime victory over Texas.
- Now in its 29th season as a Big 12 member, this will only be the 11th time the Red Raiders have started conference play at home. The Red Raiders are 6-4 in those games with all four of those losses coming to ranked opponents. Texas Tech last opened Big 12 play at home in 2022, rallying from a 14-point deficit to top No. 19 Texas, 37-34, in overtime.
- Texas Tech will face an unranked opponent to open Big 12 play for only the third time in the past eight years and just the 10th time in the past 12 seasons. The Red Raiders are 11-4 when opening Big 12 play against an unranked opponent, which includes a 4-0 mark in home games. The Red Raiders fell at unranked West Virginia, 20-13 a year ago in their Big 12 opener.
- Texas Tech is 17-11 all-time in Big 12 Conference home openers entering this weekend after rebounding from its loss at West Virginia with a 49-28 victory over Houston a year ago. The Red Raiders are a perfect 2-0 in Big 12 home openers under Joey McGuire as Texas Tech previously defeated No. 19 Texas in overtime to kick off league play in 2022.
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The matchup versus Arizona State represents only the fifth time since 2010 that the Red Raiders have hosted a non-ranked opponent for its Big 12 home opener since 2010. Texas Tech is 13-3 against unranked opponents to open its home conference slate since joining the Big 12 in 1996.
INSIDE THE ARIZONA STATE SERIES
- Texas Tech and Arizona State will meet for the fifth time in history on Saturday and for the first time as Big 12 Conference members. The two schools enter this weekend with the series tied at 2-2 after the Red Raiders won the last meeting, a 52-45 shootout in Lubbock early in the 2017 season.
- The 2017 victory split a non-conference home-and-home series between the two schools as the Sun Devils previously topped the Red Raiders, 68-55, in Tempe a year earlier. Texas Tech quarterbacks threw for at least 500 yards in both of those games with Patrick Mahomes II torching Arizona State for 540 yards and five touchdowns in 2016 followed by Nic Shimonek and his 543 passing yards and six touchdowns in 2017.
- The two schools first met to kick off the 1999 season, the final year for the Red Raiders under legendary head coach Spike Dykes. The Sun Devils limited Texas Tech to only 246 yards of total offense in a 31-13 as the Red Raiders were unable to follow a Shaud Williams touchdown on their opening drive with much offense the rest of the night.
- Texas Tech and Arizona State did not meet again after that 1999 encounter until the 2013 Holiday Bowl where the Red Raiders knocked off the 16th-ranked Sun Devils, 37-23, in San Diego. Davis Webb threw for 403 yards and four touchdowns in the victory, which improved the Red Raiders to an 8-5 finish under first-year head coach Kliff Kingsbury.
TEXAS TECH-ARIZONA STATE CONNECTIONS
- Texas Tech senior tight end Jalin Conyers will be facing many of his former teammates this weekend as the Gruver native departed Arizona State following the 2023 season to return home to West Texas. Conyers played three seasons for the Sun Devils, combining for 74 catches for 846 yards and six touchdowns over 34 games. He closed his tenure in Tempe ranked sixth all-time in Arizona State history for receptions by a tight end.
- On the Arizona State roster, the Sun Devils have one former Red Raider in senior offensive lineman Cade Briggs, who redshirted the 2022 season at Texas Tech, playing in only two games. He returned closer to his hometown of Las Vegas prior to the 2023 season to sign with Arizona State where he’s appeared in 13 games.
- Texas Tech defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter was on the same coaching staff at Cal from 2017-20 as Arizona State assistant head coach and special teams coordinator Charlie Ragle, who spent five seasons with the Golden Bears. They were joined for the 2020 season by Texas Tech defensive backs coach Marcel Yates, who departed Cal alongside DeRuyter following that year to join the staff at Oregon.
- Texas Tech offensive line coach Clay McGuire will be more than familiar with Arizona State defensive coordinator Brian Ward as well as linebackers coach and defensive run game coordinator A.J. Cooper as the trio were on the same staff together at Washington State in 2022. Prior to that, McGuire was on the same USC staff as Arizona State cornerbacks coach Bryan Carrington, who was an offensive quality control analyst with the Trojans in 2021. That was McGuire’s lone season on the USC staff as offensive line coach.
- Texas Tech outside linebackers coach C.J. Ah You began his coaching career at Oklahoma, his alma mater, from 2014-15 as a defensive quality control coach. The Sooners’ defensive staff that second season featured current Arizona State defensive line coach Diron Reynolds, who served in a similar capacity at Oklahoma in 2015 before departing for Stanford.
SOUTH END ZONE BUILDING MAKES GRAND DEBUT
- Texas Tech officially opened the South End Zone Building to Jones AT&T Stadium, a $242 million project that began following the 2022 season finale on Nov. 26, 2022.
- The $242 million project will mark the largest contiguous football facility in the country, as the south end zone building will connect, via a sky bridge, to the Womble Football Center and the Sports Performance Center, which opened in 2017 as Texas Tech’s indoor football practice facility and indoor track and field venue. Which in total will feature more than 340,000 combined square feet of space.
- The Red Raiders now enter Jones AT&T Stadium each gameday through the Gary Petersen Field Club, a 12,000-square-foot premium space that is among the first of its kind in college football. It is one of several new premium areas as Texas Tech has added 17 new luxury suites, on the 3rd floor of the South End Zone building, to go along with 500 club and loge box seats and two spacious party decks on the concourse. Texas Tech now boasts 102 premium suites throughout Jones AT&T Stadium to go along with more than 2,500 club and loge box seat options.
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Joey McGuire and his staff moved into their new coaches’ offices on the second floor of the south end zone building in July, giving them a stunning view overlooking Cody Campbell Field at Jones AT&T Stadium. The office location places McGuire and his staff steps from each position room and the sky bridge connected to the Womble Football Center where offensive and defensive breakout rooms will be located as well as a team meeting space and a state-of-the-art walkthrough
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Texas Tech is slated to open the Womble Football Center side of the project this fall as the two-story building will maintain its football strength and conditioning, sports medicine and equipment areas on the main level as part of the new layout. The Red Raiders’ main locker room will be located in the Womble Football Center, which includes space for 120-plus athletes and modern primary designs from Hollman that are fully ventilated and contain USB charging ports and DreamSeat technology for every player.
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Release Provided By Matt Burkholder Texas Tech Athletics
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