Through The Smoke: Respond

November has arrived, and it's now a four-game season for the Red Raider football team as it aims for three wins down the stretch to reach bowl eligibility.

An unfortunate loss in Lawrence followed by an idle week allowed disappointment to stew for two weeks leading into the month of November.

But, head coach Matt Wells has a history of success following bye weeks and in the final month of the season. He is 7-1 as a head coach in games immediately following an open week and 14-10 as a head coach in November.

Last season at Utah State, he went 3-1 during November, including a pair of road wins. The last time Tech won three Big 12 games in November was in 2008.

November presents an opportunity early in head coach Matt Wells' tenure for the Red Raiders to push forward and fight. An opportunity to reflect a change in mentality within the culture of the program moving forward.

WELLS

"I think last week was good. It was a combination of practice and rest. They came in here this morning, even last night, I think refreshed, refocused. There's a little bit of a renewed energy, I think for this stretch run. You got four games left, our guys know that this a competitive league. And a lot of games on Saturdays, especially the ones lately, have come down to the wire. We need to find a way to win one, to finish one. And I think they're very well aware of that."

"They have continued to play hard and bust their tail for us and I respect our guys for that, I love our guys for that, I think that shows buy in. But the biggest thing for us is that we continue down our process, we live by our core values, the things that we're going to do every single day to give us a chance to win and deserve victory on Saturday and that's what we have to continue to fight for as coaches and as leaders in this program, the culture and the how, how you do things every day. But I like the way our guys are playing, they're practicing hard, and, man, we're going to turn the corner and we need to find a way to win one. We know that."

YOST

"They've done a really good job of focusing on the next game and putting everything into that. You've seen it in the last three games. They've been able to focus on that game. The kids have done a real good job of staying in the moment and being where their feet are."

"What you've got to do is whatever happens on Saturday, you've got to deal with it Sunday and Monday whether it's good or bad. They've done a good job on that. They've been working really just trying to get better as a team and as an offense on our side of the ball. Our best game is still to come."

PATTERSON

"The bye was right on time. It was good for our kids to get away. That was a tough loss, obviously. The kids took it extremely hard. So I think the bye has been really good for us. We've got a renewed spirit. It gave us some time to evaluate what we're doing and get back to some fundamentals last week of tightening up some techniques and alignments which I felt like had kind of slipped a little bit over the course of the first eight weeks."

"It's about taking victory. We have to get to where we take victory. Our big emphasis this week is you've got to deserve it. It starts in the way you live your life, it starts in the way you prepare and it starts in the way that you do every single thing starting from Sunday all the way through that next Saturday. Once we develop that consistency, it's going to start being a byproduct of what's taking place. Our kids, man they want to. They're trying. It's not about trying harder, it's about elevating your focus and maintaining that over the course of a five hour window. If we can do that, we're going to start winning some games."

Texas Tech University Athletics

WELLS

YOST

PATTERSON

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