Game Preview: Wells Era Begins With Montana State

Saturday, August 31

Lubbock, Texas

3 p.m.

Texas Tech Athletics

Montana State

Game Preview: Wells Era Begins With Montana State

August 26, 2019 | Football

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Texas Tech will kick off the 2019 season with a 3 p.m. start Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium

By: Texas Tech Athletics Communications

LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech will open the Matt Wells era of Red Raider Football on Saturday afternoon with a 3 p.m. kickoff against Montana State inside Jones AT&T Stadium.

The game will broadcast to a regional audience on FOX Sports Net with Eric Collins on the call alongside analyst Max Starks. Fans can find the game locally on FOX Sports Southwest or on any streaming device by using the FOX Sports Go app.

The Texas Tech Sports Network will also broadcast the game over 46 affiliates throughout the state of Texas and New Mexico as Brian Jensen will have the call alongside analyst John Harris, sideline reporter Chris Level and engineer Steve Pitts. The radio broadcast can also be heard XM channel 199, Sirius channel 134 or via the TuneIn app.

INSIDE THE MONTANA STATE SERIES

Texas Tech will be facing Montana State for the second time in program history and the first time since 1939 when the Red Raiders were in only their 15th year as a football program. Needless to say, there are no official statistics known from that game other than the Red Raiders winning via a 13-0 shutout.
The Red Raiders are 9-1 all-time against current members against the Big Sky Conference, which also includes former opponents such as Eastern Washington (2-0), Montana (3-1), Northern Arizona (2-0) and Weber State (1-0).

TEXAS TECH IN SEASON OPENERS

Texas Tech is 64-27-3 all-time over its 94 season openers after opening 15 of the past 16 years with a victory. The lone loss during that stretch came a year ago when Ole Miss handed the Red Raiders a 47-27 loss in the AdvoCare Texas Kickoff Game in Houston.
Prior to that loss, the Red Raiders boasted the third-longest winning streak nationally for season openers, trailing only Ohio State and Alabama among FBS programs. Texas Tech's 15 game winning streak in season openers was its longest in program history.
Texas Tech head coach Matt Wells is 2-4 over his career in season openers with wins over Southern Utah in 2015 and Weber State in 2016. All four losses came to power-five programs, including two preseason top-15 teams in No. 9 Wisconsin (2017) and No. 11 Michigan State (2018).

TEXAS TECH IN HOME OPENERS

The Red Raiders have been dominant in home openers during their history as Texas Tech is 75-17-2 all-time after winning each of its last 19 openers inside Jones AT&T Stadium.
Since 1980, Texas Tech is 35-4 in home openers with two of those losses coming to ranked opponents (1992 vs. No. 15 Oklahoma and 1990 vs. No. 18 Houston).
Texas Tech has scored at least 40 points in each of its last seven home openers. The Red Raiders have scored 50 or more points in five of those games and 60 points three times.
Texas Tech has not dropped a home opener since 1999 when North Texas shocked the Red Raiders, 23-14, in the third game of the season.
Since converting to the spread offense in 2000, Texas Tech has averaged 50.1 points per game over the course of 19 home openers. The Red Raiders have scored at least 20 points in all 19 games during that time and at least 50 points nine times, including each of the last four seasons.
Texas Tech has won each of its last 19 home openers, the majority of which being in a blowout fashion. The Red Raiders have averaged 31.1 points as their margin of victory over the course of the winning streak.

HEAD COACHES IN DEBUT GAME

Texas Tech head coaches have an all-time record of 9-5-1 when making their debut on the Red Raider sideline. Matt Wells will look to match each of Tech's last three head coaches - Kliff Kingsbury, Tommy Tuberville and Mike Leach - with a victory in his first game leading the Red Raiders.
This will be the first time a Tech head coach has made his debut against an opponent not named SMU since Leach faced New Mexico in 2000. Both Kingsbury and Tuberville opened their tenures versus the Mustangs.

NEWS & NOTES

Texas Tech enters this weekend having won each of its last nine non-conference games at home and 34 of its last 35 contests dating back to the 2002 season. The Red Raiders are an impressive 41-2 overall in non-conference home games since moving to a spread offense in 2000.
Since 1978 when the NCAA divided its Division I schools into two divisions, Texas Tech has compiled a 20-1 all-time record against FCS opponents. All of those games have been played at Jones AT&T Stadium.
Texas Tech is averaging an impressive 51.7 points per game all-time against FCS foes. The Red Raiders have reached the 40-point mark in each of their last seven meetings with FCS programs.
Tech is currently riding a consecutive-game scoring streak that spans 270 games dating back to the 1997 season. The streak, which began against Texas A&M on Oct. 25, 1997, ranks eighth nationally and is the second-longest active streak in the Big 12 behind TCU.
Texas Tech is the only school in the country to rank among the top 16 teams for total offense and top 10 for passing offense in every season since 2002.
Texas Tech leads all power-five programs in the state of Texas for percentage of players hailing from the Lone Star State as 83 percent of the Red Raiders stayed in-state to play collegiate football. Tech significantly leads its Big 12 counterparts in percentage of players from Texas as Baylor and the University of Texas rank second at 74 percent, while TCU ranks fourth at 54 percent.
Texas Tech's offensive line has accounted for 115 career starts, led by Terence Steele, who has started in all 37 games of his career. He is followed by Madison Akamnonu with 26 starts, Jack Anderson with 25 and Travis Bruffy with 22 of his own.
Texas Tech will have 14 student-athletes on its roster this fall who have already completed their undergraduate degrees. The list includes Madison Akamnonu, Lonzell Gilmore, Eli Howard, Ja'Marcus Ingram (grad transfer), Zech McPhearson (grad transfer), Houston Miller, Evan Rambo (grad transfer), Armand Shyne (grad transfer), Terence Steele, Christian Taylor, Donta Thompson, RJ Turner (grad transfer), Jackson Tyner (grad transfer) and Quentin Yontz.