10 Things: Texas Tech 34, Arizona 26

1. Game Links:

2. Grades.

C	PASS OFFENSE
We have to get to the bad before we get to the good. The numbers weren’t great, 11 of 24 for 144 yards, but Castellanos had 2 touchdowns and no picks.
A+	RUN OFFENSE
Holy smokes. What a performance. 328 rushing yards on 47 carries for 7 yards a carry and 2 touchdowns.
D	PASS DEFENSE
Arizona was going to get yards and he’s been so good this year. When there were no lanes to run, Fifita had to pass and did he ever, 73% completion percentage and 417 passing yards allowed. Difficult to give this a passing grade (pun intended).
A+	RUN DEFENSE
Sack adjusted yards per carry: 1.8 for Arizona and the Wildcats had 30 attempts for 12 yards overall. Arizona had no room to run.
A	COACHING
The decision to simply replace Hammond was one that was obviously not made on game day and then the decision to simply run the heck out of the ball in the 2nd half from your favorite OC.

3. Is This The Offense You’ve Always Wanted. That’s not a question for you, but for head coach Joey McGuire. Is this ultimately the offense that Texas Tech wants and the days of high flying passing offense of years past is of years gone by. And does this also mean that Mack Leftwich knows what he’s doing? Maybe. Actually, I’ll let you answer that one (because I know you will). There’s going to be a lot of discussion about the offense and I feel for Will Hammond, but this is a results oriented business. And I’d also say that Texas Tech is going to run up against a run defense that’s not going to allow Castellanos to do what he did today so he’s going to have to be better. But it worked today and that’s coaching.

4. Dominating Run Defense, But That Passing Defense. Such a Jekyll and Hyde situation, the run defense was absolutely dominating. I know that sacks played a part in this, but no matter how you cut it, the rush defense simply did not allow Arizona to do anything on the ground. And the Arizona HC said in one of those sideline interviews in the 2nd quarter I think that Arizona was going to continue to run the ball and wear down the defense. That never happened. In the 3rd quarter, Arizona had 4 rushing yards on 4 attempts. In the 4th, -14 in 9 attempts.

But the pass defense was not something to brag about. Over 400 yards passing and completing 33 of 45. By any measure, that’s not good. And that’s a pretty simplistic way to look at things, because technically, TexasTech had just 4 quarterback hurries and 5 sacks. Those official QB hurries don’t really tell how much pressure Fifita was under the entire game it seemed like, but Fifita was that good. Regardless, that pass defense simply could not stop big plays and lots of yards.

5. Too Close. The final score wasn’t close, but the game certainly was. You really wanted Texas Tech to dominate the ball when they had the ball with 6 minutes left, but some bad decisions, poor passes and a penalty led to giving the ball back to Arizona in short order. What ended up happening on the ensuing defensive side of things was an AJ Holmes sack that forced Arizona to punt on 4th on 20. You’d still like to see the offense do a bit more before all of that and the offense would bounce back, thanks to a huge Williams run on 3rd down.

6. First Down Efficiency. Texas Tech averaged 6.5 yards on 1st down, including 21 carries for 127 yards on 1st down. That’s the juice right there and it’s a thing we’ve discussed all season, tough 3rd downs were the result of poor 1st downs and that was solved for a game. Defensively, this is where Texas Tech shined as well. Despite all of those yards given up, Arizona had a rough day on 1st down, 28 1st downs and 98 total yards for 3.5 per 1st down and of all things Fifita had his roughest down on 1st down probably, just 8 of 12 for 64 yards. Maybe that was an offensive design to not test the defense on 1st down, but that hurt the Wildcats.

7. Advanced Stats.

Texas Tech was in passing downs on only 25% of their plays, which means they were well in front of the chains for the entire game.
Texas Tech was just 6 of 16 on 3rd downs, which isn’t great, but given that this is basically a new offense, I think grace is in order.
Arizona was 8 of 19, much better.
The distance on 3rd down was just 5.5 yards for Texas Tech, much better, while Arizona had 8.7 yards to go on 3rd down.
Oh, and on 3rd down, of those 6 conversions, 4 of them were running plays and averaged 14.9 yards per rush.

8. Idle Thoughts.

No Malcolm Simmons? No problem. More Chase Campbell, which was interesting.
I very much enjoy Dusty Dvoracek on the color. I think he really does an excellent job and him pointing out how Cam Dickey was so good blocking the ball was spot-on for the entire game. Dickey only had 10 carries for 34 yards, but he was instrumental in Castellanos carrying the ball.
The starters at receiver was Hudson and Johnson, but also 2 tight ends, Terrance Carter and Jett Carpenter. Maybe that’s a tone-setter.
Huge days from the linebackers, yet again. They are highly productive. All of them. They combined for 33 tackles and John Curry only had 7 tackles, but 3 of them were tackles for a loss.
Shout-out to Stone Harrington, goign 2 for 2 on field goals.
Will Karoll also bounced back, 3 inside the 20 yard line and averaged 40 yards a punt.
An emotional Joey McGuire after the game.

We love you too @JoeyMcGuireTTU‼️

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— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) October 31, 2026

9. Coach Comments.

10. Tortilla Tossin’ Players of the Game.

Tommy Castellanos. What a day. Again, not necessarily with his arm, but just enough to keep the defense honest, 11 of 24 for 144 yards and 2 touchdowns (and some iffy throws as well) along with 117 yards rushing on 19 carries and a touchdown.

J’Koby Williams is so good and so explosive, rushing for 175 yards on 14 carries, there’s not a play where the defense can take a play off. Add in a 37-yard kickoff return and that’s a really big day for maybe the smallest man on the field.

Austin Romaine, AJ Holmes, and Ben Roberts. Goodness gracious. Romaine finished with 14 tackles and half a sack, but he was all over Fifita. Holmes was and is an absolute unit, just 2 tackles, 2 QB hurries and 1 sack, but that’s not a true showing of how dominant he was. And Roberts had 11 tackles with a PBU and a hurry.