Texas Tech is set to host Baylor in front of a sold-out crowd on Saturday night at Jones AT&T Stadium in what is essentially an elimination game for either team to have a chance of making the Big 12 title game.
The Red Raiders are a perfect 4-0 at home this season following a 48-10 rout of West Virginia this past weekend. Their perfect home record already includes overtime wins over in-state opponents Houston and Texas.
It will be the 81st meeting between Tech (4-3, 2-2 Big 12) and Baylor (4-3, 2-2), with the Bears narrowly leading the series at 40-39-1 all-time entering this weekend. Each of the last three meetings has gone down to the wire, with seven points being the combined margin of victory.
However, Baylor has not won in Lubbock since 1990, losing ten consecutive road matchups against Texas Tech.
The Bears are coming off a 35-23 win over Kansas on Saturday that saw them hold a 28-3 halftime lead and finish with 273 yards rushing.
The two Texas schools are highly interconnected, as Saturday’s contest will mark the first time Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire will go against his former school.
McGuire’s first job in the college coaching ranks after turning South Dallas’ Cedar Hill High School into a football powerhouse was with the Bears. He served in various roles at Baylor, coaching the tight ends from 2017-18, the defensive ends in 2019, and then the outside linebackers in 2020-21.
McGuire was promoted to associate head coach for the Bears before the 2019 season.
Following his hire at Texas Tech, McGuire formed a staff full of connections to Baylor as ten coaches or staff members with the Red Raiders are either Baylor graduates or previously worked for the Bears at one point.
Similarly, Baylor head coach Dave Aranda has experience on the Texas Tech sidelines, as he was a graduate assistant for the Red Raiders defense from 2000-02. He earned his master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from the university in 2002.
Aranda and McGuire are good friends outside of the football field, with McGuire crediting his time at Baylor under Matt Rhule and then under Aranda for his professional development.
Aranda has been a vocal supporter of McGuire, expressing happiness at McGuire getting the head coaching job in Lubbock before the season and in the leadup to the game this week.
“Well, I have a lot of respect for Joey and a lot of guys on the staff,” Aranda said at his Monday press conference. “I mean this wholeheartedly, I want them to win, I want them to have success, just not versus us. I want them to be successful, I know the type of people they are, and what it means to all of them and everything. So, you want them to have their own success, but not this Saturday.”
McGuire said there would be nothing personal in this Saturday’s matchup but acknowledged that it would feel different than any other game.
“I know there’s going to be nerves before the game and I’m going to get to see a lot of buddies,” McGuire said. “I was a part of recruiting about 95% of that roster, so I know those guys really well and care a lot about them. But at the end of the day, it’s a football game in the Big 12 that we need to go win.”
McGuire has not made it easy for Baylor to the gameplan, as he has not named a starting quarterback for Saturday. Season-opening starter Tyler Shough is available to play for the first time after suffering a broken collarbone in Week 1.
Donovan Smith started the next four games for the Red Raiders before freshman Behren Morton got the starting nod the last two weeks. While Morton has looked good, throwing for 704 yards in his first two career games, McGuire said all three quarterbacks could see the field, keeping the Baylor defense unprepared for who they will face.
“When you have a quarterback room like we have, you always want competition. You never want anybody to get complacent or just set, to where they can’t go out and perform” McGuire said. “When you have somebody that’s injured and won the job and won the job without any doubt, you definitely have to open it up.
“Him breaking his collarbone, it wasn’t his fault other than it happened,” McGuire continued of Shough. “I think we open it up.”
The game’s key matchup will be the high-powered Red Raider offense, averaging an impressive 518.3 yards of total offense per game during Big 12 play, against a stiff Baylor defense ranked 29th in the nation, allowing just 341.1 yards per game.
Another thing to watch before the game is the induction of Texas Tech great Patrick Mahomes into the school’s Ring of Honor and Hall of Fame. Mahomes’ attendance at the game will only fire up the sold-out Red Raider crowd even more.
The game will commence this Saturday at 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
