The Lede

GAME THINGS
	Texas Tech Red Raiders (1-3, 0-1)
	Houston Cougars (2-2, 0-1)
	September 30th @ 2:30 p.m.
	Jones AT&T Stadium | Lubbock, Texas
	Texas Tech -10
	FS2 | FOX Sports Live
	90, Partly Cloudy

The Cougars

I’m not going to lie. I usually pepper this section with news and articles from the opposint team, but it’s slim pickins’ here.

The big story is Donovan Smith returns to the high plains to take on Texas Tech:

“It’s an emotional thing when you are on a team and you leave and then you go back there and play,” Holgorsen said. “It is when you coach, too. You just have to do a good job of blocking things out, and I will do my job when it comes to Donovan with that this week.”

Smith is not expected to meet with the media this week ahead of the game. During an interview in the spring, Smith said he looked forward to a return to Lubbock.

“I’m all for that,” Smith said when reminded UH would make a second straight trip to Texas Tech. “I’ve got no problem with that. It’s going to be crazy. It’s going to be exciting.”

And to hear Joey McGuire speak about Smith on Monday of this past week, he had nothing but praise for Smith who informed McGuire how things were happening the entire time.

There was also this note at the end of the article regarding some injury updates for Houston:

Nose guard Chidozie Nwankwo (ankle), running back Tony Mathis Jr. (ankle) and safety Antonio Brooks (groin) are expected to be available against Texas Tech, Holgorsen said.

I was expecting a bit more in terms of content, but we also have grades from the Sam Houston State game for the Cougars and this is the meat of it:

Offense
Parker Jenkins offered a glimpse of the future with 105 rushing yards and three touchdowns in his first career start. Donovan Smith completed 77.5% percent of his passes and did not commit a turnover. Matthew Golden had his best game of the season with nine catches on 10 targets. The offensive line did not give up a sack. If there was a knock it was Smith’s clock management on the final drive before halftime when the Cougars came with no points despite having the ball inside Sam Houston’s 10-yard line. Grade: A
Defense

How did Holgorsen feel after the Bearkats went 83 yards on their opening drive for a touchdown? “The first drive made me want to throw up,” he said. Thankfully the Cougars settled down and did not allow any points the rest of the game. The 178 total yards and eight first downs were the second fewest allowed by the Cougars during the Holgorsen era. Sam Houston had eight punts, only crossed midfield one other time in the game, and had a fumble and interception. Grade: A

And since we’re talking Houston, Red Raider Sports’ Jarrett Ramirez takes a look at UH:

In the game last season between Tech and Houston, Cougars’ edge rusher Derek Parish torched the Red Raider offensive line for 4.5 sacks. Parish has since moved on, but Cole Spencer is not taking the Houston defensive line lightly.

“They’re a very physical group, they’re a very athletic group,” Spencer said. “They do a really good job getting in great position to make plays… No. 9 (Nelson Caesar) is a really great, talented, athletic player. No. 12 (David Ugwoegbu) is really good. No. 10 (Chidozie Nwankwo) and No. 18 (Anthony Holmes Jr.) are both really solid. We’re going to have a good challenge across the board this weekend.”

A challenge indeed, those four Spencer mentioned have combined for 46 tackles and six sacks this season. There might not, however, be a bigger or more talked about challenge this week for Tech, than playing against quarterback Donovan Smith. The former Red Raiders’ heroics saved the day against the Cougars’ last season but he is now, of course, on the enemy sideline. Myles Cole is well aware of the switch for Smith and is using previous practice experience against Smith to prepare this week.

“For one, we know the things that he struggles with and we can attack that,” Cole said. “It’s good to be two-by-two (in pass rush) to not have any fly-bys from the step up or scramble, because we know he will. It’s just about us feeding off each other, playing for each other, and executing the play call.”

The Red Raiders

I mentioned that Joey McGuire said that Donovan Smith handled it the right way and via Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams, there will be some interesting play between Smith and the defense:

McGuire noted Saturday will be a rare time when Red Raiders defensive players have been turned loose to tackle Smith, quarterbacks generally being off-limits to contact during practice and intrasquad scrimmages.

“But those guys kind of know his running style,” McGuire said. “That’s going to be a very cat-and-mouse part of the game, of him understanding some of the stuff that we’re doing, but also us understanding some of the stuff he does just by his posture and some of the things he does with his arm angle.”

I really enjoyed Joey McGuire’s press conference from this week and although I’ve blockquoted it, THESE ARE NOT DIRECT QUOTES SO PLEASE BE CLEAR ABOUT THAT, THIS IS MY STANDARD NON-TRANSCRIPT. The thing that I appreciate is how McGuire doesn’t run away from how he feels about the team and doesn’t run away from the preseason bravado. I think you want confident coaches and players and believing in your team. I’m absolutely okay with that. Generally speaking, I thought there was some good stuff here this week and wanted to share if you didn’t get to watch or listen yourself.

Have to be better in one-score games and coaches have to be better. Running the football settles the game down and takes pressure off the quarterback. It’s not because of the situation we are in, but because that’s what we are doing well. Have to continue to run the football.

He’s the guy and ready to go. Behren Morton would tell you that he tried to do too much. We said this yesterday, we had 9 drops in that game, 7 legitimate drops and we gave up 68 yards in yards after first contact, 12 missed tackles, on 2 punt returns and defense. On things you can control, that’s 5 to 6 first downs, when Behren is in the situation he is in, he understands he has to do a good job of leading this team.

I hate to bring tis up, it is information, so I’ll give the information. We talk about it as a team, we don’t make excuses and we don’t let other people make them for us. It has been a long time since we’ve been a part of a team with so many guys banged up, would love to have Jacob Rodriguez, but it is next man up and Mike Dingle and Jordan Sanford, Tyler Owens had a hip flexor, but these guys are stepping up, also Dylan Spencer. If Behren can’t go, Jake Strong will be ready. Mike Dingle has earned more snaps. Behren and Baylor Cupp are banged up, but it is football banged up.

I felt good about the play calls, 1st play call was mike linebacker matched up against Martinez, and 2nd play call was a fingertip on a 6’9″ tight end. 3rd down call was a wide open tight end and the 4th down call was pressure on Behren. Could you put yourself to be closer to the goal line? Hindsight is 20/20, I felt when I heard Kittley say it was a good play call, I 100% would say if it isn’t a good play call.

I would say that we sent some stuff in and agreed with 3 of those penalties. I see why you called that, but my point is there is a play just like this, how is it no-called. We want consistency and have been to the meetings and try to be active to see their perspective. When you throw a flag, you have defined the rule and that rule has to carry throughout the game, that was my frustration. Did it make a difference? You have to really dive into that 4th quarter.

We were running into good boxes, we don’t want to run the ball when they know we are going to run the ball .We are running the ball into good boxes. Behren did a great job of that and getting us into the right play.

We are athletic in the offensive line and the gap schemes are what we are doing best. Caleb is very athletic. Our tight ends are incredible, added a play with both tight ends pulling, cuts down on penetration. The times where we gave up a sack, the nose looped on Dennis, it is more about being patient, last year we were beat on the edge, we are getting beat on guys coming inside, need to do a better job communicating with each other. how many times did your quarterback get hit, with Tyler, he is a tough dude, he thought it was just an ankle and made a throw and everyone saw it, but he’s a tough dude.

I hate to bring this up again, yes, it is really frustrating, I came in the meeting with coaches last year, let’s go through this, we lost 2 guys on offense and Tahj Brooks hasn’t made up for what we did last year. The question is of bad football and eliminating bad football. We’ve dropped more passes in 4 games than we did all of last year. We had long drives last year and it has been a thorn in our side, it’s not just converting on 3rd down, but not putting ourselves in position to go for it on 4th down. In week 1 and 2, we were so bad on 3rd down we couldn’t go for it on 4th down. I can’t sit here and say, it was me, the players, Lance Barilow, Coach Martin and Coach Huff, I asked the coaches to do the 4-game self-scout. I told the players, if I believe in something as much as I believe in this team, if everyone wants me to be like every other coach and protect the team and coach from criticism, I’m not worried about the criticism. Where I hate it, if I was wrong, the players are feeling it and they are working their tails off and we will find a way to get this right. Am I wrong to be a true believer in the players I have? I don’t think so, I believe that and I asked for their comments. It is a very mature team from the position of self-awareness. Rabbit and Bryce both stood up and talked about things we are not doing as a collective. I appreciate that question because I have thought a lot about it.

I wanted to take a minute to address why and should Texas Tech be honoring Mike Leach. For me, this is easy, yes, Texas Tech should and yes this shouldn’t be a question. Given the state of the program and the involvement of so many former players are part of this program, from Cody Campbell to Antonio Huffman and Sammy Morris, my thought is that if they were not behind this, then Texas Tech wouldn’t be honoring Coach Leach and his family.

And if the question is, well, Texas Tech waited until he passed? Yes, there was maybe still things happening with Leach and looking for information before he passed. But that’s not a thing any longer.

And we as fans might also need to think about what the athletic department and football staff controls and what the administration controls. The football staff doesn’t have the ability to do anything about what happened. All the football and athletic department staff can do is honor the man that was so important to the program and if the Leach family is willing to be honored then I’m all for it.

Stats

Last week the stats were clearing pointing to a Texas Tech win, but stats are on paper and not on a field

Advanced Stats:

Texas Tech Offense vs. Houston Defense:

Texas Tech Defense vs. Houston Offense:

Odds and Ends

If you’ve ever wanted to understand advanced stats, this was really good.

ADVANCED STAT PREVIEW EXPLAINER https://t.co/zG89g7xpwD

— parker fleming (@statsowar) September 26, 2023

The Athletic’s Max Olson goes behind the scenes of the Big 12 courting programs to get to 16. Obviously behind a paywall, but here’s a couple of snips (Robbins is Arizona’s president):

But Yormark wasn’t going to beg. He needed schools that wanted to be aligned with the Big 12 and weren’t just settling if the Pac-12 got a bad deal. “I want someone to run to us,” Yormark said. He sat down with Robbins at the men’s Final Four in Houston and told him frankly, “I’m not going to be your life preserver.”

By early April, Yormark believed he could get Colorado. The Pac-12 pushed back its deal timeline to late spring or early summer. The Big 12 commissioner leaned on intel from his deep Rolodex of TV contacts. They were all telling him Kliavkoff had misplayed his hand. He knew the Pac-12 was in trouble.

One week later, Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt was sitting in the Admirals Club at DFW International Airport on a Thursday afternoon. He and his wife were heading to Canton, Ohio, for Zach Thomas’ induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But first, he joined another emergency Big 12 meeting.

“At one point, my wife looked at me and said, ‘You better not say too much. You know there are people around you who could be listening,’” Hocutt said.

Yormark invited ADs and board members on the call to share good news: Arizona requested Big 12 membership. It was time for a vote. The lingering question was whether the Big 12 would go to 14 members or try for 16. One AD reminded the group of a hard truth: The Pac-12 had an opportunity to put the Big 12 out of business two years ago. Because they didn’t, they were now incredibly vulnerable. Years from now, will the Big 12 be similarly vulnerable and regretting a squandered opportunity?

In the summer of 2021, the Pac-12 could’ve easily swiped four Big 12 schools. Its expansion committee looked into Baylor, Oklahoma State, TCU and Texas Tech. At the time, had the Pac-12 made an offer, sources at those schools say they absolutely would’ve accepted that lifeline.

But it never came close to happening. The Pac-12 CEO Group passed on expansion, preferring an alliance with the ACC and Big Ten. Robbins wishes they’d taken all eight remaining Big 12 schools and formed the Pac-20, but he found few supporters for that concept. He even suggested the ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 all merge together.

“It was very clear the majority of the people in that room weren’t even going to entertain it,” Robbins said. “Never got to a vote or anything. I think that’s sad.”

Photos don’t do it justice! South end zone project is going to be massive! Steel up on southeast bell tower and steel moving east to west! 1/2@JoeyMcGuireTTU @TexasTechFB @TechAthletics @TexasTech @TTUSystem @TTUAlumniAssoc @DustinWomble @CodyC64 pic.twitter.com/HCCXpqplgt

— Totally Texas Tech 🌵 (@ttu_red) September 26, 2023

For those of you that are curious. I did finish my 50k last weekend. I don’t know how many people dropped, but heard that an ambulance had to be called 3 different times because of the heat. I did finish and beat my time by 20 minutes from last year’s 50k. It was very hot and very difficult. I banked as many miles as I could before it really started to heat up and put ice on my neck starting around 9:30 or so in the morning to control my body temperature.

Done. Ran the first loop and run-walked the second loop. The heat was ridiculous this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/q0cW8qhiZD

— Seth Jungman (@SethJungman) September 23, 2023

Game Prediction

Not a ton of time to get the game prediction, but I hate this spread and I’ll take the points here, but think that Texas Tech gets back on track.