The Assignment

Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (6-1, 3-1)
Bad Guys: Oklahoma State Cowboys (1-6, 0-4)
Where: Jones AT&T Stadium | Lubbock, Texas
When: Saturday, October 25th @ 3:00 pm
TV & Streaming: ESPNU
Radio: The Varsity Network
The Line: Texas Tech -38.5
Game Notes: Texas Tech | Oklahoma State
Weather Report: Partly Cloudy, High 73, Low 51

We move onward to Oklahoma State, who have had their own issues. Long-time head coach Mike Gundy has been fired and I am sure there is a ton of ink that has been spilled regarding his dismissal, but it seemed that this was a long-time coming. In addition to Gundy being let go, as was defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, a long-time defensive coordinator in his own right as well. In Gundy’s place is offensive coordinator Doug Meacham, who has been in and around the Big 12 for what seems like a long time.

Meacham is also a former Oklahoma State footballer, played the offensive line (I had no idea) and now returns as the interim head coach. I feel that Meacham made his name at TCU, from 2014 to 2016 (the heyday) and then again from 2020 to 2024. Meacham has spent plenty of time in the Big 12, at Oklahoma State from 2005 to 2012, then Houston, Kansas, etc.

Want another blast from the past? Former Texas Tech offensive coordinator Kevin Johns is the quarterbacks coach. Johns was the offensive coordinator in 2018, which I think was Kliff Kingsbury’s final year as the head coach.

The defensive coordinator is Clint Bowen, the former Kansas linebacker and coach. Bowen was basically at Kansas from 1998 until 2009, then came back to Kansas in 2012 until 2019 and had time as a high school coach at Lawrence High School for 4 years before returning to the college game and Oklahoma State this year.

The News:

Non-transcript of head coach Joey McGuire.

• Kirby Hocutt: Thank you for being here. As we more forward, will no longer encourage or permit throwing tortillas at the opening kickoff games. We control our own fate, no one tells us what to do and we make our own decision and we encourage actions. we are on the cusp of a special football season. Give the players and team all of our support and energy to give them every chance to accomplish the goal of a Big 12 Championship. We have dreamed about this for a long time. our fanbase have worked extremely hard to accomplish this goal. Cannot risk allowing our actions penalize our football team. Simply, let’s not do it. It is on me, I leaned in on this and encouraged and and now I must ask that you stop. Ask our students and fans to make Jones AT&T Stadium to continue to make the best environment in college football. Confident it will be louder than before.
• Joey McGuire: So lucky to be at this place and coach at Texas Tech. This is from Skyler Gill-Howard, before the game. He saw a tweet on social media: Went to Texas Tech because my dad attended. Never a sports fan until went to a game with him. He died my freshman Year. Have waited 20 years. I cannot express my joy. Skyler sent that to the team leaders, about 25 on this group text. Remember what you are playing for is bigger than just you. Our dedicated fans have been waiting decades. Do it for the team and all of the Red Raiders that have been waiting. It means everything to us and everything to them for how much they love the university. We are lucky to have this group of men. I wished we were doing it at 7-0, doing it coming off a loss. We came away with a 15-yard penalty. We have a 5-game season and 3 of those 5 are at home, extremely important to win at home. Our fan base will get behind this. The last game was as loud as I’ve ever been a part of. The energy had nothing to do with tortillas. 60,000+ strong. Get ready for a game against Oklahoma State.
• Hocutt: Encourage and remind at the gate not to bring them in, ask them to discard them. Will have reminders in the stands. Please pass to the aisles we will discard them from you. if folks still throw tortillas, we will monitor with our staff, security and cameras. If they do this, we will suspend ticket privileges for the remainder of the year (for all sports).
• Hocutt: We have the best students and fans we ask for their compliance and help. We ask for self-enorcement. Continue to do security. This season we have allowed, we’re going to do our best to discard them before they enter the stadium.
• Hocutt: our brand has never been bigger. That was evident on Saturday against Arizona State. We will ean into being the team where the stands storm the field because it means that much to beat Texas Tech. Our goal is to get to Arlington and raise that trophy.

• McGuire: It wasn’t acceptable. I think when you have Mack up here. We feel like we did not run the football enough. Needed to be more effective. When they started stretching, we tried to grab momentum. I will tell you that was the best tackling team we’ve faced. We had a couple of big runs and a couple of 2-yard gains. If you really want to look at the numbers, we were really bad on 1st down. We were in a lot of 2nd and 8 and 9. Need to be better on 1st down.
• We have to push the ball down the field, which we have done more in the past 3 years.
• What we did not do, how many 3-and-outs did we have? Our defense had to play way too many snaps. David Bailey played 72 snaps, same with Lee Hunter and Holmes. We were 3-and-out a lot more than all year long.
• Behren Morton ran in the pool, ran in the alter-G, run again this afternoon. Will be day-to-day, was proud of him, he was better in listening, and we will take it day-to-day. Down the stretch, it’s a 5-game season, our backs are against the wall. There will be crazy games the next 5 weeks. Want to control what we can control and beat Oklahoma State this week and what’s next. Want a fully healthy Behren Morton and some other guys.
• I was proud of our guys. There was nothing that went our way in a lot of ways. Improvement in the officiating of the Big 12, there were crazy things that happened and bounces, knocked 3 balls out, an interception dropped that led to a field goal. yet with 2 minutes left, we took the lead. The team is going to fight. We’re going to find out a lot about our selves and how we bounce back. Our coaches were already saying what they wish they had done. They took ownership, asked the players if they were the best version of themselves. I found out about them that they were acceptable. Walked down the field with Jados, Sampson and Zambrano, they understood they didn’t play their best and need to play better.
• I didn’t think we played really well, we gave up a simple sack. We didn’t get a lot of push. They did stuff well. We had times we had good pass pro, they will take a lot of pride running the ball more effective this week. We interiewed a young lady for our 5th trainer job, she was at OHio State, and asked what changed in losing to Michigan to beating Oregon and she said that everybody is pissed off. Pissed off at myself and take ownership, asked that we be pissed off this week and the rest of the year and is an edge this Saturday.
• I know those guys well, I know Doug Meacham, I know Clint Bowen, he was there at Kansas when Kenny and Juice were in Kansas. They were grandfathered in the rules, I thought they played Cincinnati really well. #20 had a lot of yards, they have a new OC, he was really creative, he did things that bothered us, unbalanced, we’ll see that the rest of the year because that gave us issues on defense. OSU and TTU are so alike. This was Coach McVeigh’s hate game, we’ll show the team a video and a message he delivered and will definitely be showing that.
• Don’t have a lot to say , when approaching people in combat mode and high alpha male and you feel that you can attack them verbally, I am happy that my brother-in-law was around my wife and I’m lucky I have two Texas Rangers and an Arizona police officer. I was really surprised because they are defending Big 12 Champs, I don’t think we should rush the field, it’s a big game because we’re in it, not who we are playing. I was impressed with Arizona State’s athletic director, they were doing everything they can. I feel sorry for the security. Have seen some crazy actions the last few weeks. I don’t condone any actions where you are verbally attacking anyone, when you do, you’ve made a choice. I hope our guys are man enough to walk away. I heard every cuss word in America, I had someone guarding me. Just have to be better. It’s a mob of hate that comes out in those situations.
• I don’t want to be where I’m at, I’d rather be 7-0, I think everyone is aware of opportunities and never want to miss an opportunity, frustrated with Saturday. There’s an undefeated team and that running back rushed for 100+ yards, that quaterback is mobile, multiple on defense, it’s difficult in that we have guys that need to focus and grab momentum back. I was appreciative the AP voters kept us where we are at. We haven’t played anyone close and keeps us in a spot where we can climb back in this thing.
• When I asked Mack, our speed option, we felt like we had it. I wish I hadn’t said a word, had a slant to Johncarlos Miller, looking back on it, that was the better play call. When they didn’t have that backer, which was Cam Dickey on the safety, the defensive end played it well and made Will pitch it early. Frustrated in getting involved in that moment.
• Will and Mitch have all of the playbook. He’s growing, he does a lot of good things. Such an incredible person, we have a guy that’s a 5th year senior and a redshirt freshman. Will Hammond did not lose that game, it was a collection. Arizona State got their quarterback healthy.
• On kicking the field goal, we would have still been down by 9, we had not had the ball, so looking at getting the ball back twice, how long does it take you to score, that’s why we went for it. Maybe we scored that fast, but I believe in the defense, we got the call and the back shoulder and if you go back to that sequence, it was 4th and 2 and we lose contain on that play and lose 0 on that play. The DB doesn’t know that we’ve lost contain. We get a penalty that helps get them to the 2-yard line and they go ahead.
• I think he’s a young quarterback, he played good against Arkansas, didn’t play with Brooks or Kelly. Played well against Utah and ran the ball well against Kansas. He’s growing, our team believes in him, he’s only going to get better. We have to continue to help him grow. There is no one in the building that took the loss as hard as him, he cares about this team and this situation.
• Mitch would have gone in over Morton, two true freshmen was the other option. He was questionable, we made sure to let the conference know, we didn’t want to go against the rules for injury report, it’s been interesting how people take liberties and define their own rules. We are not part of these meetings when it comes to the injury meetings. That was a conference deal, I think our trainers were just told what was going to happen.

Education: This week’s education is motion explained.

Stock Up:

• I’m going to try to focus on the positive. I frequently check Team Rankings for stats here and I look at their projections on occasion.
• Team Rankings has Texas Tech predicted to have 10.4 wins and 1.6 losses. BYU is second with 9.8 and 2.2, Cincinnati is 3rd at 8.7 and 3.3, and Arizona State is 4th with 8.2 and 3.8 losses.
• The stats say that Texas Tech has a 54% chance of winning the conference with BYU having 17.2%, Cincinnati 11.5% and Arizona State with 6.2%.
• The predictive rank (not 100% sure what this is) has Texas Tech as the #7 team.

Stock Down:

• Want remaining win percentage? (as if you have a choice)
• The easiest games remaining are Oklahoma State at 99.9% winning odds, then West Virginia (on the road) at 95.3%, and UCF at home at 90.7%.
• I was a bit surprised to see Kansas State on the road with a higher winning percentage than BYU, the Kansas State game is 82.1%.
• The toughest remaining game is BYU at home with a chance of winning at 76.6%.

Needs Fixin’: As an aside, I have not been as far behind as I am this morning. Just need to be better and am crossing fingers that I finish The Report by Friday.