Texas Tech Football Notebook: Game Times for 1st 3 Games; Roster Management

Texas Tech announced the game times and television platforms for the first three games of the season, Houston, Stephen F. Austin, and Florida International.

Sept. 4 – vs. Houston, NRG Stadium (6 p.m., ESPN)
Sept. 11 – Stephen F. Austin (6 p.m., Big 12 Now on ESPN+)
Sept. 18 – Florida International (6 p.m., Big 12 Now on ESPN+)

The Houston game being in primetime is great and I think that’s great for everyone. I remember the last game in Houston was a relatively early kickoff, I remember grabbing brunch with Dan and Brian before heading off for the game, so it was probably an 11:00 a.m. kickoff. Now, a whole day to prep? Sign me up.

The SFA and Florida International are on ESPN+ and I wonder if the tradeoff with those games was that they won’t be on a major carrier, like one of the ESPN channels, but it would be on ESPN+ and you could pick what time you want the game to be. So perhaps there is a possibility that the athletic department wanted those evening game times for the fan and tailgating experience. That’s obviously a theory, but given that the game is going to just be streamed on ESPN+, I’d imagine that Texas Tech could pick when they wanted the kickoff to be.

Inside The Red Raiders’ Jarrett Johnson has a long piece about the roster management for the football team and what Johnson believes is some success for the how head coach Matt Wells in the transfer portal.

Texas Tech granted local media access to most of the 15 practices this spring. I attended every workout we were allowed at. My two main takeaways were how much bigger the team was across the board and how much more talent there was at the quarterback position. The transfer portal isn’t the only reason for these two upgrades, but a major factor. In fact, it’s difficult to imagine Texas Tech’s depth chart without the talent infusion from the transfer portal as 16 former transfers are expected to be in the two-deep next season.

Johnson goes through each of those transfers, so click on over, but the overriding part of this is that the roster is significantly upgraded as a result of the transfers. And I think the benefit of transfers has been felt more on the defensive end of the field than the offensive end, although with the addition of Tyler Shough, that will probably significantly change this year.

Regardless, I think this is a good read and Johnson seems high on the idea that the team is bigger and stronger than in year’s past at this point. I’m bullish on this team as well, thinking that a 7-win team is where I see the team at the end of the year.

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