On the Pitch
This is from last week, but wanted to follow up on Texas Tech soccer’s win over New Mexico. Skylar Haase, Raleigh Greason, Diana Gudmundsdottir, and Mattie Neves all had goals, with assists from Kylie Bahr and Taylor Zdrojewski. Zdrojewski has also been named to the 2026 IWSOC/United Soccer Coaches Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy Positional Players to Watch. Lastly, the next game will be against Hawaii in Honolulu on Thursday, so first-touch will be 9:00 p.m. CST and 4:00 p.m. HST. Aloha!
On the Gridiron
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg with anonymous coaches on all top quarterbacks and here’s the bit on Will Hammond:
Although Hammond’s original return timeline was several games into the 2026 season, coach Joey McGuire now expects him to play in Texas Tech’s opener Sept. 5 against Abilene Christian.
A Big 12 defensive coordinator said: “If they don’t give him too much, he can be very efficient, because I think they’re going to be really good on defense again, so you just can’t have a quarterback who screws it up.”
There’s this article behind a paywall that I can’t read where Texas Tech is saying that no one will play Texas Tech next year and I think it says that Texas A&M passed on a neutral site game, as have USC and Mississippi State. The headline also says that Texas Tech is embracing being the villain and saying things like that seem a bit performative for me. I don’t need to be a villain and I don’t know that this helps getting teams to play you. To be fair, I also don’t know that this hurts either. Just seems like a bit much, although without seeing the actual quote, I’m not going to judge too harshly.
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams on defensive tackle Mateen Ibirogba:
Growing up outside Washington, D.C., in Clarksburg, Maryland, Mateen Ibirogba played football throughout high school, but also lacrosse. The young man, now a Texas Tech football defensive tackle, wielded a lacrosse defender’s long stick.
“It was a different kind of sport,” he said. “It taught me a lot — hand-eye coordination, leverage, having lateral quickness — so it was a really fun sport to play.”
Back then, Ibirogba wasn’t a coveted football recruit, so he started out less than 30 miles from his high school at Georgetown — famous for basketball, FCS in football. To Ibirogba’s recollection, football crowds consisted mostly of family and friends, but it was an ideal starting point for a raw talent with room to grow.
CBS Sports’ Brad Crawford has fall camp risers and I honestly don’t know how there can be camp risers with just a week of fall camp, but here we are. The player mentioned for Texas Tech is true freshman LaDamion Guyton. He arrived I think right as camp started, so he missed all of the spring getting his academics in order. I don’t know how quickly he’s really going to impact the team, he’s behind Trey White and Jamond Mathis, White is an absolute stud and Mathis was productive at Kent State so he’s got competition in front of him.