Preview: Tech hosts Baylor in primetime matchup

LUBBOCK, Texas – On Saturday night at Jones AT&T Stadium, Texas Tech is set to host Baylor in front of a sold-out crowd. Fans are encouraged to wear black for the Big 12 contest that kicks off at 6:30 p.m.

Television coverage will be provided by ESPN2 with Clay Matvick behind the mic. He will be joined by former Notre Dame linebacker and eight-year NFL vet Rocky Boiman in the booth providing analysis while Dawn Davenport will be reporting from the sideline. The broadcast can be accessed from any desktop or laptop computer, a personal cellular device and television streaming services using the ESPN app.

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 and sideline reporter Chris Level. The radio broadcast can also be heard on SiriusXM channel 106 or 199, as well as on the Varsity app.

TECH HOSTS BAYLOR UNDER THE LIGHTS

Texas Tech will put its undefeated record at home on the line Saturday when the Red Raiders host Baylor under the lights at Jones AT&T Stadium. The Red Raiders are a perfect 4-0 at home this season following a 48-10 rout of West Virginia this past weekend at home.
Texas Tech and Baylor will meet for the 81st time this weekend in a back-and-forth series that Baylor now narrowly leads at 40-39-1 all-time entering this weekend. Each of the last three meetings have gone down to the wire with a total of seven points being the combined margin of victory during that span.

MAHOMES BACK IN THE LBK; SLATED TO ENTER RING OF HONOR THIS WEEKEND

Texas Tech great Patrick Mahomes II will become the eighth member of the prestigious Ring of Honor this weekend as he will be inducted during a halftime ceremony presented by American State Bank. Mahomes, who will also be enshrined in the Texas Tech Hall of Fame, will join a select group in the Ring of Honor consisting of legends such as Donny Anderson (2012), E.J. Holub (2012), Dave Parks (2012), Gabe Rivera (2014), Zach Thomas (2016), Michael Crabtree (2021) and Elmer Tarbox (2021).
Mahomes was surprised with the announcement of his pending Ring of Honor induction on Aug. 20 following the Kansas City Chiefs' preseason win over the Washington Commanders. Texas Tech Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt and President Lawrence Schovanec joined Mahomes on the field to unveil his upcoming enshrinement as part of a video presentation on the Arrowhead Stadium screens.
The fact that his induction is coming in a game versus Baylor is somewhat ironic as Mahomes recorded several of his best games against the Bears. Over his three starts against Baylor, Mahomes combined to complete 92-of-152 passes for an astounding 1,599 yards (533 yards per game average) and 14 touchdowns. His final game as a Red Raider came in the 2016 finale against Baylor where he threw for 586 yards and six touchdowns in Texas Tech's 54-36 victory.

RED RAIDERS SET FOR 81ST MEETING WITH BAYLOR

The Red Raiders have won 10-consecutive games against the Bears in Lubbock, including all eight contests during the Big 12 era. Texas Tech needed a 25-yard Jonathan Garibay field goal to secure a 24-23 victory over the Bears in their last visit to Lubbock in 2020, keeping Baylor winless in road games since a 21-15 victory over the Red Raiders in 1990.
The two schools are in their fourth year of returning the Texas Farm Bureau Shootout back to campus sites after playing the previous 10 meetings in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex (2009-18). The Red Raiders were only 4-6 against the Bears during that span but are 18-8 over the course of the Big 12 era. Texas Tech is a combined 24-15-1 all-time in home games against Baylor, which includes a 20-14 mark at Jones AT&T Stadium.
Texas Tech and Baylor combined for only 47 points in the 2020 meeting between the two schools and 51 points a year ago, the fewest since the Red Raiders pulled off a 20-13 victory in 2009. From 2010-19, both teams averaged more than 35 points per game against each other as the Red Raiders and Bears scored at least 30 points each in all but one of those games.
This will be the first time Texas Tech has hosted Baylor in a night game at home since the 2000 season when the Red Raiders blanked the Bears, 28-0, behind 322 passing yards and two touchdowns from Kliff Kingsbury and a pair of rushing scores from Ricky Williams.
Texas Tech and Baylor boast one of the longest-running series in the Big 12 as the two schools have met annually since 1956 dating back to their time in the Southwest Conference. Baylor controlled a 19-17 advantage over the Red Raiders during their SWC tenure but immediately lost its next 15 games in the series upon entering the Big 12 in 1996.

TEXAS TECH, BAYLOR CONNECTIONS

Saturday's contest will mark the first for Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire against his former school in Baylor. The Bears represented McGuire's first position at the collegiate level as he served in a variety of roles at Baylor, coaching the tight ends from 2017-18, the defensive ends in 2019 and then the outside linebackers in 2020-21. He was promoted to associate head coach prior to the 2019 season. His son, Garret McGuire, was a quarterback for Baylor from 2017-20.
Following his hire at Texas Tech, McGuire formed a staff full of connections to Baylor as 10 coaches or support staff members are either Baylor graduates or previously worked for the Bears at one point. That list consists of inside linebackers coach Josh Bookbinder (Baylor '09), tight ends coach Josh Cochran (graduate assistant 2017-18, quality control 2019), head strength and conditioning coach Lance Barilow (senior associate director of athletics performance 2021), director of player personnel James Blanchard (Assistant A.D. for scouting 2019 and 2021), director of football operations Quintin Jordan (director of football operations 2019-21), director of scouting Brian Nance (three-year letterwinner 2014-15, 2017; associate director of player personnel 2019-21), offensive analyst Kirk Bryant (graduate assistant 2017-18, quality control assistant 2019-20), operations and recruiting assistant Harrison Hanna (associate director of equipment services 2018-21), James Lockhart (two-year letterwinner 2018-19, graduate assistant 2021) and post-grad recruiting intern Jake Pittman (Baylor '22).
Bookbinder, in particular, has significant ties to the Bears as he is the grandson of legendary Baylor head coach, Grant Teaff, who remains the school's all-time winningest head coach after compiling a 128-105-6 record over 21 seasons from 1972-92. Bookbinder was previously on the Baylor staff prior to joining McGuire with the Red Raiders as he was a defensive quality control assistant from 2019-21.
Baylor head coach Dave Aranda has experience on the Texas Tech sidelines, meanwhile, as he was a graduate assistant for the Red Raider defense from 2000-02, the first three seasons under Mike Leach. He earned his master's degree in interdisciplinary studies from the university in 2002 before accepting the linebackers coach position at Houston for the 2003-04 seasons.
Aranda's staff also features a former Texas Tech great in Lubbock native and cornerbacks coach Kevin Curtis, who was a two-time All-American and three-time All-Big 12 safety for the Red Raiders from 1998-01. Following his successful playing career, Curtis was drafted in the fourth round of the NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers where he spent three seasons. He returned to his alma mater in 2013 as the defensive backs coach under Kliff Kingsbury, a position he held for three seasons. He and Tech interim head coach Sonny Cumbie spent one year together on the same staff in 2013 as Cumbie departed Lubbock following that season to accept the quarterbacks coach role at TCU. Curtis is a member of the 2022 class to the Texas Tech Hall of Fame and will be formally inducted Friday night during a ceremony at the Overton Hotel and Conference Center.
Another former Red Raider great is also on the Baylor staff in recruiting and personnel assistant Aaron Hunt, who remains Texas Tech's all-time career sacks leader after recording 34.0 during the 1999-02 seasons. Hunt is a former teammate of Curtis as well as current Texas Tech associate director for player development Sammy Morris, who was a senior during each of their freshman seasons in 1999.
The Baylor roster features defensive back Byron Hanspard Jr. on their roster, the son of Texas Tech Hall of Fame member and Doak Walker Award winner Byron Hanspard. The elder Hanspard remains the Texas Tech career rushing yards leader after totaling 4,219 yards on the ground to go with 29 touchdowns over his Red Raider career from 1994-96.

NEWS & NOTES HEADING INTO BAYLOR

Texas Tech is a perfect 4-0 at home this season as a victory over Baylor would mark the Red Raiders' most home victories in a season since finishing 6-1 inside the friendly confines of Jones AT&T Stadium in 2019. The victory over West Virginia locked in a winning season at home for the Red Raiders with three games still remaining on the schedule (Baylor, Kansas, Oklahoma).
Following a stretch of five ranked opponents in the first six games, Texas Tech will look to win at least two of its final five games to become bowl eligible for the second-consecutive season and the 40th time in school history. Texas Tech is looking to return to a bowl in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 2012-13 campaigns.
Texas Tech has had 39 different players start a game this season, which currently ranks fifth nationally in the FBS and third among power-five schools. The Red Raiders trail only New Mexico (47), Kentucky (40), Northern Illinois (40) and Colorado (40).
According to Nielsen Media Research, Texas Tech's trip to Oklahoma State drew 1,633,000 television viewers, marking the most-watched Big 12 Conference game on FS1 since November 2017.
The loss to Oklahoma State snapped a streak of six-consecutive wins for the Red Raiders when scoring at least 30 points that dated back to early in the 2021 season. Texas Tech is 3-1 in such games this season after its victory over West Virginia.

RED RAIDERS 'TAKE THREE' VS. WVU

Since his hiring, Joey McGuire has preached that Texas Tech will be "Take Three University," a phrase dedicated to the Red Raiders' team goal of creating three takeaways per game. McGuire got his wish for the first time in his tenure against West Virginia as the Red Raiders picked off three passes and forced a fumble in a convincing victory.
The Red Raiders picked off West Virginia three times in the win, their most against a Big 12 foe since totaling the same number in the 2019 matchup against Baylor. Texas Tech is now plus-2 in the turnover margin during Big 12 games this season.

OFFENSE ROLLING INTO BAYLOR GAME

Texas Tech is averaging 560.5 yards of total offense the past two games, marking the first time the Red Raiders have compiled at least 500 yards in consecutive Big 12 games since doing so versus Oklahoma State and Baylor early in the 2019 season. Tech is averaging an impressive 518.3 yards of total offense per game thus far during Big 12 play.
The Red Raiders currently rank third nationally in passing yards per game, averaging 363.6 yards a contest despite using three different starters at quarterback to this point. Behren Morton has thrown for 704 passing yards the past two games alone in his first two career starts.

PLENTY OF EXCITEMENT FOR MCGUIRE ERA

Texas Tech boasts more than 7,000 new season ticket holders this year, pushing its total to more than 28,000, which ranks in the top 10 all-time in school history.
Second sell out of 2022. Texas Tech announced a sellout for its win over Texas and looks forward to its sellout crowd this weekend for the Baylor contest which sold out well in advance on Oct. 6.
60,975 fans enjoyed the Red Raiders' victory over their in-state rival Texas. That attendance number marked the fourth-highest in Jones AT&T Stadium history and its highest all-time in the series versus Texas. It was the first sellout for Texas Tech since doing so in back-to-back weeks late in the 2018 season against Oklahoma and Texas.
The hype is real: Game one of the Joey McGuire era marked the largest home opening crowd (58,823) since 2016 when Texas Tech hosted Stephen F. Austin (60,097). The attendance mark against Murray State ranked just outside the top-10 all-time in Jones At&T Stadium history.
Through four home games, Texas Tech has been at 96.2 percent of its capacity, which ranks 23rd in the country and fourth in the Big 12 Conference. The Red Raiders are averaging 58,150 fans per game, which is also the fourth-highest total currently in the Big 12.

-TECH-

Preview: Tech hosts Baylor in primetime matchup

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