The Assignment

Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (3-0, 0-0)
Bad Guys: Utah Utes (3-0, 0-0)
Where: Rice-Eccles Stadium | Salt Lake City, Utah
When: Saturday, September 20th @ 11:00 am
TV & Streaming: FOX
Radio: The Varsity Network
The Line: Utah -3.5
Game Notes: Texas Tech | Utah
Weather Report: Partly Cloudy, High 80, Low 61

Kyle Whittingham is starting his 21st year as the head coach and 32nd at Utah. And he’s also the 2nd longest serving head coach in FBS, which is saying something, consistency is king a lot of times in athletics. Whittingham has had a losing record just three times as head coach, in back-to-back years in 2012 and 2013 going 5-7, and then last year. Whittingham is said to retire relatively soon and with defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley set to take over when that does happen. Scalley is starting his 18th year at Utah and played at Utah. Ever wonder why Devon Dampier chose utah? Well, his offensive coordinator at New Mexico, Jason Beck, is the new offensive coordinator for the Utes. Beck played at BYU and started coaching quarterbacks there, then has had stops at Virginia and Syracuse.

The News:

Non-transcript of head coach Joey McGuire.

• Scout team players of the week: WR Tyson Turner and DL Keyshawn Williams.
• Really excited, few coaches I respect more than Kyle Whittingham. The toughest and most physical teams have a chance to win every week and that’s what football is supposed to look like. It is a tough place to play. Are 21-5 with the DC and 4 losses came last year. Great test for us and road game. The talent perspective they have 2 tackles are projected 1st round draft picks, they have a very good defensive line. Quarterback is dynamic. Rushing for 298 yards a game, we’ve done a good job of stopping the run. Who executes and makes the fewest amount of mistakes.
• Don’t know if can be more ready. Every Sunday, Blanchard with his personnel group they do a scouting packet and how many snaps our guys and opponent has played. Usually pretty even, we have an old team and played a lot of games. The good thing is the experience we have, the OL and DL are old groups.
• Offensive MVP: Cam and J’Koby have played well. Behren doesn’t get a lot of respect and he likes it that way.
• Defensive MVP: Defensive line, the whole group, and John Curry.
• Think we have to stop the run, they are a heavy run football team. Win 1-on-1 battles. They have a better secondary and rush, we’ll have to play well.
• Continue to talk to the team about how to win on the road, some things from Grant and tighten the huddle, celebrate more when there is a big play, bring the emotions and being locked in. Do love having a veteran quarterback and opposite of that, having Jacob Rodriguez.
• Their leading rushing is the quarterback. The TV copy of the Wyoming game they talk about the scramble and in 2018 Kyler Murray, 2019 Jalen Hurts. We have to take away obvious runs. Need to take away the easy runs by alignment.
• Going to be a loud stadium, offense will be indoor and we’ll crank up crowd noise and keep the offense indoor all week. Going to go out a little earlier on Friday, move everything up an hour and get everything ready to go at 10:00 a.m.
• We stick to what we do, we are very situational football, we do that all through camp and in our spring ball. We already do a lot of and had a lot of 2 minute situations at camp and in this week’s practice. We have been successful with 1 the prior week, but not 1 this week.
• Helps we’ve done some of that stuff, but Kyle will have those guys ready to go. When you lose your starting quarterback it is hard, they have a receiver that has played with that quarterback.
• Third and fourth string guys have to find spots on special teams.
• We have done exactly what we should do, dominate the 3 teams we’ve played. We came out pretty healthy. We had our whole roster on the sideline and now we have to travel with 74, the 3rd stringer better play with special teams.
• Have to lean on the brand, the players coaches oath and stress to the team to make it about us. We have to be the best versions of ourselves. We know the Big 12 is tough.
• I thought it was really good, Cam Dickey ran really physical, when he was in the Wildcat and he made a good run on his last touchdowns. J’Koby was really good. Both teams have dudes and physical football teams.
• I wish they had a pro-style quarterback. Have to stay in our rush lanes and coordinate our rush. The secondary has to plaster the receivers and have to let the front 7 take care of them and not lose sight of their receivers.
• With Ian also being a punter, we have Stone and Upton have done a good job. Lean on backups being if you needed to get to that point where starters could play special teams. Wesley Smith plays on all special teams and those that don’t stay at home.
• Are lucky and fortunate those guys in the kicking room, Stone is kicking at a high level and Upton has done it. Fortunate to have that competition. Jack Burgess is a vet. Have to win that part of the game.
• Am big on replay assistance, like the NFL. The better we can get our game and assistance in real time. The process can be faster than what it is, stop having the dudes look through the iPad.
• The 74 roster limit, every conference had a different number. We all voted in favor of it, this is the first year where we take 74, previously 70.
• /Ed. note. I listened to the entire press conference and interestingly, offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich blamed Morton’s interception on himself, he guessed the wrong coverage and said he put Morton in a bad spot. Said that offensive coordinators make mistakes too and that’s what he told Morton after he threw that interception. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a coach take specific blame in that manner. It was refreshing. Morton probably also took responsibility on that play./

The Ride for Week 3.

New uniforms to debut on 11/08/2025. I think I like them better than last year’s version.

Closer look at the details 🔎 pic.twitter.com/11zJ24u2Lu

— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) September 15, 2025

Education: This week’s education is every running concept described in 18 minutes.

Stock Up:

• If Behren Morton has time, he’s going to find someone deep and that’s something that we just haven’t seen a ton of the last few years. Texas Tech is #7 in the nation in yards per pass at 10.4 and are 2nd in the nation in passing yards per game. They are slinging the ball around.
• Another positive sign is yards per play, 11th in the nation at 7 per play. I think we take these things with a grain of salt because they are not opponent adjusted. Regardless, I’d also add that Texas Tech is 33rd in the nation in rushes per game, 40, which means that they are running the ball.
• Defensively, Texas Tech is 10th in the nation in opponent points per play and 9th in the nation in opponent red zone scoring.
• Teams are not running on Texas Tech, 1.3 yard per rush, good for 2nd in the nation and opponent rushing yards per game is 2nd in the nation at 35.5.
• The passing stats aren’t hugely impressive. Texas Tech is 6th in the nation in opponent cmpletion percentage, 50.7% overall.

Stock Down:

• Texas Tech’s red zone offense is 49th in the nation. Not exactly great and that could use some work. And this vaunted offense is only rushing for 3.8 yards per rush, 82nd in the nation.
• When opposing teams do pass, they are passing for 220 yards a game, which I’m not sure what to think about that. Teams aren’t exactly passing to catch up it seems even though they are down pretty bad most of the time.
• Not a lot to complain about at this point.