The Basics

Teams: Texas Tech Red Raiders (8-1, 5-1) vs. Oklahoma State Cowboyw (6-3, 4-2)
Date & Time: Saturday, November 14th, 2026 @ 8:30 p.m.
Location: Boone Pickens Stadium | Stillwater, OK
TV & Streaming: ESPN
Line: Oklahoma State -3.5 Open at Texas Tech -15.5

You think the former Red Raider footballer will give his former program some breaks? Me neither. Eric Morris, the Elf, returns, with an absolute stud at quarterback and an offense that absolutely won’t quit. Morris calls plays for the most part and it’s a 47% run rate with a 53% pass rate, while getting off a play every 26.3 seconds.

Skyler Cassity is the defensive coordinator and the Pokes are struggling a bit here, running the 4-2-5 defense and blitzing at a rate of 43.4%. The pass defense will be the biggest problem for Oklahoma State I think.

This is going to be another wild week for me. I mentioned last week that Fitsum and the Kaufman High School Band qualified for state and they perform in San Antonio on Wednesday. My wife and I are driving down on this afternoon and then heading back very early on Thursday morning. I also mentioned last week that whoever won between Kaufman Ferris would qualify for playoffs and Kaufman won in the last 30 seconds. So, Youssouf has to stay back to practice. Kaufman plays Lindale in Lindale on Friday night, which is the No. 2 team in the state in 4A-Division I. Going to be a busy week.

Oregon state Update: The Bears get rolled for the 2nd straight week, losing to Texas State 42-21. The magical run may be over as Oregon State has Boise State this week.

ESPN’s Bill Connelly SP+ picks have Texas Tech winning by 0.1 points, so the winner goes to Oklahoma State and the against the spread pick is Texas Tech.

The News:

Texas Tech Football: Texas Tech begins critical road stretch at Oklahoma State & Game Notes

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Nathan Giese: Receiver injuries piling up for Texas Tech football

Red Raider Sports’ Lane Selph: Texas Tech faces massive test against Oklahoma State as Joey McGuire addresses Injuries, Defensive Concerns

Red Raider Sports’ L. Jordan: “I wouldn’t be sitting here without him”: Mack Leftwich on facing Eric Morris

Red Raider Sports’ Mason Turnbow: Shiel Wood previews Texas Tech’s matchup against Oklahoma State and addresses defensive concerns

The Non-Transcript

Head Coach Joey McGuire:

• Scout Team Players of the Week: Cam Wyatt, Loic Tshibangu, Danilo Guberinich.
• Excited about Saturday, you want the opportunity to play in big games. Biggest goal was to play games in November that meant something. Have a lot of respect for Eric Morris, I speak to him a lot. One of the first people to call me when I got the job. We spoke yesterday, will be a great environment. They have a great culture, especially coming off of losses, very few teams in the country that have new players. Think we are facing the best quarterback in teh nation. Not sure who will get the 1st pick, I would definitely be taking him in the 1st round. Big arm and great football IQ, hurdles for a TD in Oregon. Big running back and great receivers. Their defensive coordinator is doing a better job and playing better defense. Our guys are excited about playing. We have a lot of work to do and our coordinators will have a great game plan.
• I don’t want to say simplify, I believe in Shiel and Rob and Darcel. Have to continue to get after the pass rusher, we will have to do that. He can’t feel like he’s in a 7-on-7 game. The long touchdown and the motion and BJ checking it and Brice didn’t get the check. Need to be more physical with the receivers. Need to create turnovers to give us a chance. Have some carryover with what Arizona did.
• We’ve played well in the 4th quarter all year long, we created negative plays. You are a good play caller when it is 2nd and 4th. We weren’t giving up extra yards after contact. We had more guys in the right spot. The tough thing with those 17 plays on defense and 15 on offense because we misidentified the front. If we are all playing the same thing, it will be all right.
• If you go back in the 3rd quarter we were behind and had no momentum because it was 2nd and 18 or 3rd and long. We put ourselves in that situation. By nature of that, everything slowed down.
• We felt good about the schedule. Our breakfast was a bit later. Dave Martin found a field for us to go to and get a good stretch and walk-through and that’s a big part of our day and treating like it is at home, plus staying in OKC so that will break things up.
• Thomas Castellanos is a great leader. Guys like him. We got him here August 30th, so awesome to see how he has fit in and become a leader. He sent me a text at 5:11 a.m. yesterday, he said he had not slept and he was excited and thankful to be part of this. At the end of the game with Will Hammond and Thomas next to each other watching the defense, says something about Thomas and Will, they are responding in a great way.
• I knew that we had a great process and still building on it, I felt we could get great buy-in. In that interview process, his son is a coach with Zach Kittley, and they just got bowl eligible, they ran for 300 yards. Have Kirby Hocutt, Lawrence Schovanec, Cody Campbell, have the best backing and so many positive things, the #1 thing was that we had an incredible fanbase. I was here in 1989 watching Spike Dykes and for a heartbreaker against TCU, had brought guys out from Cedar Hill, and lost at the end of the game. I knew there was so much upside to this place and we try to capitalize on it, we are playing meaningful games in November. Saturday night was electric. Gio opened up the pocketbook to get some more fireworks. We appreciate our fans and want to show them an electric game. We are 4-2 with allowing the opponent to score 40+ points, I don’t want to be on that side of it.
• Hawkins has rushed for 1,300 yards, he and J’Koby are 1-2 in all-purpose, someone compared him to Taj, have to do a good job of attacking the football, need to populate the football. Not having to defend a true running quarterback, although Drew can run. Need guys to take one more step, a lot of guys diving, and then in the 4th quarter decided to play sound football.
• We feel good about Ace, he’s up with us, when we are going scouts, we rotate those guys, he’s not down with the scouts. Cam felt good yesterday, he went through practice. Q did not. Cam felt a lot better. On Saturday he didn’t feel the power, but he was also honest and didn’t want to put us in a bad situation. More of protecting him and him not being able to go. J’Koby has been electric.
• I’ve been in favor of the 24-team playoff from the get-go, they don’t understand playoff football, there are a lot of games that become more important. We are in favor of the Big 12 and ACC matching up, I understand what he is doing, but sark last year said that he didn’t get in because of the Ohio State loss, I think there could be some good non-conference games, we’ve had teams back out of games because their conference has gone to 9 games. Now at 24 teams, early losses won’t be as bad. If Utah has 1 loss and we do too, there should be 2 that go, with 24 there should be 4 to 5 teams get in the conference.
• We are really fortunate to have Chase Campbell and Terrance Carter can play that slot because he’s a tough matchup. Bryson Jones will get some slot. Coy had surgery today, he broke his hand. Will not rule him out against Baylor, but would not surprise me knowing Coy that he will be able to help us against Baylor. Bryson and Stone should get more time.
• When I read that there would be no conference championship game, I thought it would be awesome to be part of it for the final time.
• Chase Campbell we feel great and if we start in 11 personnel he will start. Says a lot about him and his mom and dad. He didn’t go through spring football, he was coming off a shoulder injury. High football IQ, he is athletic as he could be and played multiple positions. He can throw the football and we’ve always had stuff like that for Coy. He is one of those guys where the moment is not too big for him. He is even keel. We do expect Malcom Simmons to play if he stays on track and that gives us more ability to move people around, Malcolm outside.
• It is huge because they are fired up, I don’t know where we will be in the CFP, we are getting everyone’s best game and we are the reigning Big 12 Champs, we get to put their best foot forward. I will agree is no where it is put out by The Athletic, but it is the highest in the Big 12, Oklahoma State is a really good football team and they beat Oregon at full strength. We are playing one of the best teams in the country. You come to Texas Tech to compete and is all over the place in the NFL. All I do is look at NFL box scores and see how those players are performing.
• Jalen Jones is a hip, earliest is TCU.
• I’ve said it before, I love Coach Leach, the things he did for this community and university, he was an innovator, there were a lot of coaches that changed the game, he really changed the game. Being here I feel closer to him and staff members who played for him. They can tell some stories about him. As a person and as my own goals, I am chasing the Great Mike Leach and am glad to be in the same sentence as him for what he did for Texas Tech.

AI summary the two coordinators:

• Defensive Coordinator Shiel Wood
• Addressing Execution Breakdown: Wood evaluated recent defensive struggles and noted that many issues came down to a lack of proper execution and players failing to fulfill their basic assignments on regular, heavily-repped base calls. He mentioned that sometimes players “press” or simple mental errors occur that opponents manage to capitalize on.
• Linebacker Play in Coverage: Addressing pass coverage from his linebackers, Wood pointed out that while the unit has made high-impact plays (including multiple pick-sixes), they also suffered costly situational breakdowns that led to opposing scores. Overall, he expressed confidence in the room’s development despite those isolated mental lapses.
• Preparing for Dual-Threat Challenges: Facing high-powered offenses, Wood emphasized the difficulty of scheming against mobile, elite playmakers—highlighting quarterbacks who can hurt a defense both through the air and on the scramble-drill, requiring extreme discipline downfield.
• Offensive Coordinator Mack Leftwich
• Eliminating Negative Plays: Leftwich stressed the importance of self-scouting during the bye week, noting that many of the offense’s drives stall due to tackles-for-loss, penalties, and a lack of fundamental detail on early downs rather than being physically overwhelmed.
• Staying Out of Third-and-Long: A major focal point for Leftwich has been efficiency on first and second down. Staying ahead of the chains prevents the offense from facing difficult third-and-extra-long situations, allowing them to stick closer to manageable play-calls.
• Receiver Execution and Accountability: When discussing passing game lulls, Leftwich noted that offensive struggles are rarely the fault of just one group. He pointed out that route-running spacing, receiver separation, and quarterback vision all have to be completely synchronized for the passing attack to flow efficiently.
• Confidence in Running Back Depth: Leftwich praised the depth of the backfield, voicing strong confidence in players like Quinten Joyner and J’Koby Williams to handle heavy workloads, break tackles, and consistently finish runs moving forward.

The Ride:

This Week in the Big 12 & National Games of the Week

Big 12 Game of the Week: It is obviously the Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma State game, but also Utah @ Arizona should be electric.

11/13
Houston @ Colorado @ 9:15 pm on ESPN

11/14
Cincinnati @ Iowa State @ 11:00 am on truTV
Kansas State @ TCU @ 1:00 pm on ESPNU
Baylor @ BYU @ 2:30 pm on FOX
Arizona State @ UCF @ 2:30 pm on ESPN2
Kansas @ West Virginia @ 4:30 pm on ESPNU
Utah @ Arizona @ 6:30 pm on FOX
Texas Tech @ Oklahoma State @ 8:30 pm on ESPN

National Games of the Week: Kinda a meh slate after what was supposed to be such a great week for games, it ended up as a bit of a dud.

11/13
Illinois @ UCLA @ 8:00 pm on FOX

11/14
Duke @ Miami @ 11:00 am on ABC
Wake Forest @ SMU @ 11:00 am on ESPN
Missouri @ Georgia @ 2:30 pm on ABC
USC @ Indiana @ 2:30 pm on CBS
Texas @ LSU @ 6:30 pm on ABC

Education

Ben Johnson’s Go-To Play (4 Ways He Weaponizes It)