TTU Football Preview: Red Raiders welcome Baylor for sold-out homecoming game
October 14, 2024 5:42PM CDT
John Altman
LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech (5-1, 3-0 Big 12) will look to extend its four-game winning streak to five on Saturday and remain atop the Big 12 standings when hosting Baylor (2-4, 0-3 Big 12) at Jones AT&T Stadium at 3 p.m. The Red Raiders also enter this weekend’s sold-out homecoming contest riding a six-game home winning streak, the longest since Texas Tech won a school record 12-consecutive games inside Jones AT&T Stadium over the course of the 2007-09 seasons.
The Red Raiders, who are an impressive 14-3 under head coach Joey McGuire, host a Baylor squad for the 83rd all-time meeting. The series, which is one of the longest-running series in the Big 12 Conference as the two schools have met annually since 1956, is divided by just one game after all that time with the Bears owning a 41-40-1 advantage. Texas Tech got the better of Baylor in Waco last season, but it was the Bears who notched one of McGuire’s three career losses at Jones AT&T Stadium in 2022.
Television coverage will be provided by ESPN2 with Beth Mowins behind the mic providing the play-by-play. She will be joined by Rod Gilmore in the booth providing analysis while Lauren Sisler will be reporting from the sideline. The broadcast can be accessed from any desktop or laptop computer, a personal cellular device and television streaming services using the ESPN 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 160 or 199, as well as on the Varsity app.
WEAR RED FOR THE JONES AT&T SELLOUT
- Texas Tech announced an advanced sellout of Saturday’s homecoming game versus Baylor on Monday. It is the fourth sellout advanced sellout of the season for the Red Raiders, who previously played in front of a capacity crowd on Aug. 31 versus Abilene Christian and Sept. 28 against Cincinnati. Texas Tech has already announced a sellout for its Nov. 9 contest against Colorado.
- While seats are sold out via the Texas Tech Athletic Ticket Office, tickets can be found via SeatGeek for Saturday’s game, the official secondary ticket provider of Texas Tech Athletics.
- Tickets for Texas Tech football games have been a hot commodity; while two of its previous four games were sellouts (60, 229), its other two were near-capacity crowds on Sept. 14 versus North Texas at 11 a.m. (57,865) and Sept. 21 at 2:30 p.m. versus Arizona State (58,795).
- There are just two home games remaining following the Red Raiders’ homecoming game on Saturday with Colorado (Nov. 2) and West Virginia (Nov. 30) remaining on the home schedule. The contest versus Colorado is sold out but fans still have time to lock in their seats for the season finale against the Mountaineers. There is a limited inventory of single-game tickets remaining on sale through the Athletic Ticket Office.
- Tickets can be purchased online at TexasTech.com or by speaking to a ticket sales representative at 806-742-TECH.
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Texas Tech is encouraging fans to wear red on Saturday for the 3 p.m. kickoff versus Baylor.
WHAT A WIN WOULD MEAN SATURDAY…
- Texas Tech will be searching for only its third 4-0 start to Big 12 play in history Saturday when the Red Raiders host Baylor. Texas Tech previously began its Big 12 slate with four-consecutive victories in both 2008 and 2013, finishing with at least eight wins in each of those two seasons.
- This is only the fifth time in program history that Texas Tech has begun Big 12 play with a 3-0 start. The Red Raiders previously opened their league slate with three-straight wins in not only 2008 and 2013 but also 1998 and 2005. Texas Tech has reached a bowl game in each of its previous four occurrences with a 3-0 conference start.
- A victory over Baylor would push the Red Raiders to a bowl appearance for a fourth-consecutive season and the 42nd time in program history. Texas Tech leads all Big 12 programs with 41 bowl appearances in its history.
- A victory over the Bears would also push the Red Raiders to 6-1 on the season, marking the first time Texas Tech won six of its first seven games since that same 2013 season. The Red Raiders started a perfect 7-0 that season before ending the regular season with five-consecutive losses.
BROOKS REMAINS BIG 12 RUSHING LEADER
- The Red Raiders will look to continue to rely on Tahj Brooks against Baylor as the senior enters this weekend ranked third in the FBS with an average of 135.8 rushing yards per game.
- Brooks, who rushed for 170 yards and a touchdown in last season’s victory over Baylor, has reached the 100-yard mark in all five of his games played this season as he has totaled 95 or more rushing yards in 16-consecutive games.
- Dating back to the start of the 2023 season, Brooks leads all Big 12 rushers with 2,217 rushing yards over 18 games played.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
- 7: Texas Tech has won each of its last seven contests determined by eight or fewer points as the Red Raiders are 11-3 in one-possession games under Joey McGuire after topping Arizona prior to their open date.
- 20: The win over Arizona was Texas Tech’s 20th in only 32 games under Joey McGuire, marking the fastest a Red Raider head coach has reached 20 wins since Steve Sloan was 23-9 from 1975-77.
- 68: Texas Tech has recorded 68 points off turnovers, marking the most in a season already since 2017. The Red Raiders have combined for 60 of those points over the course of their current four-game winning streak.
THE ROAD TO 5-1
- Texas Tech’s journey to a 5-1 start this season has come despite facing a challenging schedule against opponents that are a combined 25-6 this season in games not involving the Red Raiders. That .806 winning percentage is the highest in the FBS through this past weekend. Texas Tech is the lone loss for two five-win teams in North Texas (5-1) and Arizona State (5-1), while the Red Raiders’ one loss came to a similarly 5-1 Washington State team.
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Baylor, meanwhile, enters this weekend at 2-4 overall after facing a schedule where its opponents are a combined 23-8 in games not featuring the Bears. That record ranks tied for second in the Big 12 and tied for fifth in the FBS entering this weekend.
INSIDE THE BAYLOR SERIES
- Texas Tech and Baylor will meet for the 83rd time this weekend in a back-and-forth series that Baylor now narrowly leads at 41-40-1 all-time entering this weekend. It is one of the longest-running series in the Big 12 Conference as the two schools have met annually since 1956 dating back to their time in the Southwest Conference.
- Baylor controlled a 19-17 advantage over the Red Raiders during their SWC tenure but immediately lost its next 15 games in the series upon entering the Big 12 in 1996. The Red Raiders are 19-9 against the Bears since the two schools joined the Big 12 as charter members.
- The two schools are in their fifth year of returning the series back to campus sites after playing the previous 10 meetings in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex (2009-18). The Red Raiders were only 4-6 against the Bears in DFW during that span with all but one game taking place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The two schools hosted the 2010 edition of the game at Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas.
- The Red Raiders had won 10 consecutive games against the Bears in Lubbock until Baylor spoiled the Ring of Honor ceremony for Patrick Mahomes II with a 45-17 victory in its last visit to Jones AT&T Stadium in 2022. It marked the lone home loss during Joey McGuire’s debut season as head coach as Texas Tech finished 6-1 at home in front of its home crowd. The loss was also the first to Baylor at home since Sept. 29, 1990, when the Bears escaped Lubbock with a 21-15 victory early in that season.
- Texas Tech pounded the Bears on the ground a year ago as Tahj Brooks rushed for 170 yards and a touchdown for a 39-14 victory over the Bears. It was Texas Tech’s first victory over Baylor since the series returned to campus sites prior to the 2019 season. The Red Raiders took advantage of six sacks defensively in the win, while limiting Baylor to only 17 rushing yards and just 1-of-6 on fourth downs.
TEXAS TECH-BAYLOR CONNECTIONS
- Saturday’s contest will mark the third for Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire against his former school, Baylor. The Bears represented McGuire’s first position at the collegiate level as he served in a variety of roles at Baylor, coaching the tight ends from 2017-18, the defensive ends in 2019 and then the outside linebackers in 2020-21. He was promoted to associate head coach before the 2019 season. His son, Garret McGuire (now an assistant coach at Nebraska), was a quarterback for Baylor from 2017-20.
- Texas Tech currently has 12 coaches or support staff members who are either Baylor graduates or previously worked for the Bears at one point. That list consists of three members of the coaching staff in assistant head coach and wide receivers coach Justin Johnson (running backs coach 2020-22), inside linebackers coach Josh Bookbinder (Baylor ’09, student assistant 2007-08, defensive quality control 2019-21) and tight ends coach Josh Cochran (graduate assistant 2017-18, quality control 2019). Bookbinder and Cochran were both charter members of McGuire’s first staff at Texas Tech in 2022, while Johnson joined prior to the 2023 season following three seasons as the running backs coach with the Bears.
- Bookbinder, in particular, has significant ties to the Bears as he is the grandson of legendary Baylor head coach, Grant Teaff, who remains the school’s all-time winningest head coach after compiling a 128-105-6 record over 21 seasons from 1972-92. Bookbinder was previously on the Baylor staff before joining McGuire with the Red Raiders as he was a defensive quality control assistant from 2019-21.
- Baylor head coach Dave Aranda has experience on the Texas Tech sidelines, meanwhile, as he was a graduate assistant for the Red Raider defense from 2000-02, the first three seasons under the late Mike Leach. He earned his master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from the university in 2002 before accepting the linebackers coach position at Houston for the 2003-04 seasons.
- There will be a West Texas native at quarterback for both Texas Tech and Baylor this weekend in Behren Morton, an Eastland native who grew up in Lubbock, as well as the Bears’ junior Sawyer Robertson, a product of Lubbock Coronado High School. Baylor has one other Lubbock native on its roster in sophomore outside linebacker Kyler Jordan, who previously attended Cooper High School.
- Both defenses this weekend will have a member of its two-deep who previously played at the opposing school. For Texas Tech, that will be junior defensive back A.J. McCarty, who joined the Red Raiders ahead of the 2023 campaign following two seasons with the Bears. McCarty had a key interception in the 2022 matchup between Texas Tech and Baylor as he stepped in front of a pass to return it 18 yards for a touchdown. He also had four tackles and a pass breakup in Baylor’s win. McCarty was not eligible for last season’s contest as he did not receive an NCAA waiver for immediate eligibility.
- On the Baylor side, the Bears defense features sixth-year senior outside linebacker Steve Linton, who totaled 22 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and 3.0 sacks during his lone season as a Red Raider in 2023. All three of his sacks came in the 2023 meeting between the Red Raiders and Bears where Texas Tech totaled six in the win.
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.
- 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
area on the second level. - 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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