Texas Tech’s game against the UCF Knights started at 4:05 p.m. local time, was televised on FS2, reportedly had a fox before it started, and included a fake field goal, blocked extra point and five combined drives (excluding the last drive) that ended in opposing territory without any points.
It even had an appearance from Otey the Swamp Possum, the mascot of the Double-A minor league baseball team Arkansas Travelers.
Through it all, Texas Tech found a way to get the job done and secure bowl eligibility with a 24-23 win over UCF led by a career-high 182 rushing yards from senior running back Tahj Brooks in what is likely his last game at Jones AT&T Stadium.
Brooks had 182 yards and Tech’s last touchdown on 24 carries, and sophomore quarterback Behren Morton looked as healthy as he has all year, throwing 21-for-34 with 256 yards, two touchdowns and only one interception.
Texas Tech improved to 6-5 overall and 5-3 in the Big 12, while UCF (5-6, 2-6 Big 12) will have to beat Houston next week to seal their spot in a bowl game.
Sophomore E’Maurion “Dooda” Banks had to come in the game at defensive tackle after super-senior Jaylon Hutchings left with what Joey McGuire said was a knee injury.
Banks ended up having one tackle for loss, and maybe most importantly, he blocked the extra point after a 71-yard touchdown from the Knights late with 5:30 left in the game to keep Tech up a point.
He said they were getting a lot of penetration, and they said they would get a block by the end of the night.
Banks also said after the Tech defense gave up the last touchdown, Tony Bradford Jr. told Banks, “Let’s just go block it.”
They ended up getting one off of Banks’ forearm in exactly the right moment, and it allowed Brooks to run for 34 yards to finish the game and not allow UCF to come back.
Brooks’ (probably) last time at the Jones was his best
Although Brooks has one more year of eligibility because of the COVID year, he said this year will likely be his last.
With possibly two games left, he now has 249 carries for 1,348 yards and nine touchdowns on 5.4 yards per carry, and with running back careers as short as they are, it makes sense for someone like him with NFL aspirations to take a shot at the league.
He played what should be his last game at Jones AT&T Stadium on Saturday, and it resulted in a career-high 182 yards for him in a game they needed every bit of those 182 to get it done, including 110 yards and Tech’s lone second-half touchdown.
He even did it all in front of his former teammate and good friend SaRodorick Thompson, who were a dynamic duo for years at Tech before Thompson went to the NFL after last season.
Brooks said it is a bittersweet moment for his time to probably be over at Jones AT&T Stadium, a place he’s had so many good games and amazing moments.
“I teared up a little bit,” Brooks said, “but it’s just something [where] I knew I left a good legacy here playing the running back position.”
With players out, defense still stepped up
Edge rusher Steve Linton, middle linebacker Bryce Ramirez and STAR linebacker-safety Tyler Owens were out Saturday against UCF, and defensive tackle Hutchings, safety Dadrion Taylor-Demerson and linebacker Ben Roberts left the game as well.
Texas Tech has dealt with injuries all year to the point some fans don’t want to hear it. Truthfully, it’s a part of football, but it has created problems for the Red Raiders.
Ultimately, after going down 14-0, they only allowed nine points as they didn’t allow a touchdown after the first quarter until the bomb on UCF’s last drive, but even then, they blocked the extra point.
McGuire said defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter told the team to focus on not giving up points. UCF came into the game with the eighth-most yards per game in the country, so Tech was going to give up yards, but the big thing was not allowing it to change the score.
They did that just enough Saturday, and even with players out, many stepped up. Banks was one of them, but even players like linebacker Jacob Rodriguez had to step in with a huge role even though he’s coming off an injury of his own from early in the season.
Rodriguez led the team with 12 tackles in what McGuire said will be his last regular-season game so that he can redshirt and get another year of eligibility.
They even forced one turnover, and it was junior safety C.J. Baskerville’s first interception as a Red Raider.
He had one at San Diego State in 2021, but getting this one meant a lot to him as he has been working toward it every day.
He got moved from the STAR spot to boundary safety earlier this year, which puts him in more spots to get an interception, and he said his body filled with butterflies when he got it.
“It was just amazing to have everybody kind of gather around me,” Baskerville said, “and for us to go score right after that, it was just kind of complimentary offense and defense, but that was just more important to me.”
Morton healthier, and it shows everywhere
McGuire said the expectation for this team was to get a Big 12 championship. Many, including myself, thought this could be a dark-horse team, and I at least thought they would be 8-4 after the regular season.
The loss to Wyoming was shocking, the loss to West Virginia was excruciating, and Morton being out for the second half of the loss to Kansas State and all of the loss to BYU was maddening because it felt like this team didn’t have it, especially on offense.
Through it all, they’re at least at this point. I wrote after TCU that the game could be a turning point even if they ultimately didn’t make a bowl game. Something looked different.
Sure, the win wasn’t perfect Nov. 2, and neither was the upset of Kansas or Saturday’s win over UCF. They didn’t have to be, though. They just didn’t need to make costly mistake after costly mistake, and they also needed Behren Morton to be healthy.
Texas Tech is 5-0 when Morton starts and finishes the game.
Wins aren’t a quarterback stat, but his stats through those five games: 101-for-143, 1,055 yards, nine passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns, and three interceptions.
They’re not world-beating stats, but they don’t have to be. He threw just one other pick this season for four interceptions on 214 total attempts.
The 176 pass attempts not from Morton this year resulted in 10 interceptions, including six from freshman quarterback Jake Strong in just three halves of action.
Stability has a way of being calming, and this Tech team has needed that in big moments, and this team has delivered.
After being stopped twice on fourth down in the first quarter, Morton threw two touchdowns in the second quarter to tie the game. That type of resiliency is not something Texas Tech has had often in years past, and even if they did from the quarterback position, they didn’t have it from the rest of the team to hold on.
Having Brooks run as well as he does helps a lot of everything, but a good passing game, especially one that can stretch the field, helps Brooks not have to break even more tackles than he already has.
It also helps him be a little bit fresher so that when there’s, say, 5:30 left in a game up by one, he can do most of the work and run the clock all the way down to 0:00.
Achievements for McGuire, what a bowl means
With the win, McGuire became just the second head coach to get Tech to a postseason game in each of his first two seasons. Mike Leach (2000-01) is the only other coach to do it.
Only two other coaches had .500 or better records in their first two seasons: Steve Sloan (1975-76) and E.Y. Freeland (1925-26).
McGuire is also the first coach to lead Tech to a winning record in the Big 12 two straight years since 2008-09, also when Leach was the head coach.
Those may not seem like big achievements, but in the context of Texas Tech football’s history since Leach’s departure, it’s extremely important.
Brooks said getting to a bowl game, which Tech has now done three years in a row, is emblematic of a culture change with McGuire and this program. They wanted a Big 12 championship, but ultimately, they expected a bowl game, and that’s what they’ll get.
On a day when all the seniors were celebrated, Banks said getting one more game for the seniors is what he’s most excited for about becoming bowl eligible.
“Our seniors, they put everything into this program,” Banks said, “blood, sweat and tears, and [I’m excited] that they get an extra game.
Baskerville said the journey to bowl eligibility is the special part to him.
“Starting off 1-3, nobody in America would’ve thought that we’d be bowl-eligible, and for us to play the way that we have and go through adversity, injuries and the events that we’ve gone through and still be bowl-eligible at the end of the day and now have a winning record in the Big 12 no matter how we finish, it’s just a big deal.”
Morton echoed a lot of the same sentiments after the game.
“I think starting the season 1-3 and battling back to six wins is something that tells a lot about a team, and I think that speaks volumes for both sides of the ball and special teams, too,” Morton said. “I think this team is a really gritty team that wants to be great, and obviously, things haven’t rolled our way early, but it kind of turned around, and we’re making something out of nothing for sure.”
McGuire said getting the bowl game is great for the development of this team going forward, and not just the extra game itself.
“When you start talking about bowls, we’re fixing to get an extra 15 practices to where we’re practicing not just the old guys but the young guys,” McGuire said, “and so that just helps you grow your program, and being able to do that just helps you keep taking steps.”
One last trip to Austin (for now)
Texas Tech will get to play No. 7 Texas in the Longhorns’ final regular season game in the Big 12.
The Longhorns lead the Big 12 with a 7-1 record in conference play on a 10-1 season so far, but the Red Raiders wouldn’t mind capping off a perfect November and following up last year’s win at the Jones.
Tech will make a bowl regardless of the result, so the pressure isn’t the same as it would be if they were 5-6 heading in. Meanwhile, Texas should be in the Big 12 Championship Game regardless, but they’d like to stay alive in the College Football Playoff race.
There’s no question UCF gave Texas Tech some big breaks, such as terrible clock management at the end of the first half to get to Tech’s two-yard-line but come away with nothing, and they also had costly penalties of their own at times.
Even with that, Tech still had to stop UCF on that final play of the first half, Baskerville still had to catch the interception, and they still had to block the PAT to put Tech in position to run the clock out, among other things.
Now, it’s time to prepare to go to Austin. Kickoff is already set for Friday at 6:30 p.m. on ABC.
Spoiler time?
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