Tony Thomas
Writer
The 2025 campaign has been an exciting and successful season so far for the fans of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. The masked riders of college football have taken the sport by storm, posting an 8-1 record and a No. 8 ranking in the initial College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings.
With guns up and guns blazing, Texas Tech reeled off six straight victories to start this season and has a win over a ranked opponent as they beat the 16th-ranked Utah Utes 34-10 on Sep. 20.
The Red Raiders’ offense is humming along at a stellar pace. They have averaged 43.6 points per game, which is tied for third best in the nation. Texas Tech has scored 60 points twice and 40 points four times.
Running back Cameron Dickey has rushed for 746 yards and 10 touchdowns. Dickey has averaged a superb 5.57 yards per carry and leads the Big 12 Conference in rushing TDs.
Undefeated at home, the Red Raiders are 5-0 at Jones AT&T Stadium. Balanced on both offense and defense, Texas Tech has outscored its last two opponents, Oklahoma State and Kansas State, 85-20. A stifling Red Raiders defense is ranked in the top ten in five different categories:
The Texas Tech defense gets off the field on 3rd down at a reasonable rate, holding opponents’ conversion rate to 31.91 percent.
In addition, if you want to run the ball against the Red Raiders, think again. They hold opponents to a dismal 2.41 yards per carry. Against Oregon State, they held the Beavers to just eight yards rushing on 22 carries. That’s less than a half yard per carry.
Leading this defensive juggernaut is a talented linebacker corps consisting of Jacob Rodriguez and David Bailey. J-Rod is a marauder on the gridiron and has his hand in almost every play: two INTs, one fumble recovery for a TD, 77 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, five pass breakups and a whopping seven forced fumbles.
For his efforts, Rodriguez has been named a semifinalist for the Butkus Award, given to the top linebacker in college football. Not bad for a total football guy who gave up a scholarship as a quarterback at Virginia to walk on at Texas Tech as a linebacker.
Talented and stellar in his own right, Bailey leads the team in tackles for loss (14) and sacks (11.5). Bailey has been named a semifinalist for the Lombardi Award, given to the top lineman or linebacker in college football.
In the secondary, cornerback Brice Pollock has posted four INTs, 32 tackles and four pass breakups.
Next up for the Red Raiders are the BYU Cougars on Nov. 8, undefeated (8-0) and ranked No. 7 in the first CFP rankings. The two teams have met only twice in their football histories. BYU won in 2023, while Texas Tech won way back in 1940.
While there will be no tortilla tossing on game day, Texas Tech fans will be loud and cheering their favorite sons. The colors of the day will be red and black and displayed for all to see.
“Bangin Bertha” will ring throughout the arena and raise the spirits of all who hear it. The Red Raiders will exit the tunnel, ready to pillage and plunder a victory away from the Cougars and send them back to Provo beaten and defeated.
Another week of Big 12 Conference football is in the books. Week 10 was marked as a key week for the conference, and it did not disappoint.
Bryson Blue
Writer
There is no other way to describe the Big 12 Conference race than chaos. There are currently five ranked Big 12 schools, and some of them have to face each other before the season ends. BYU gets a pass this week with a bye, but other Big 12 leaders like Texas Tech, Utah, Cincinnati, and Houston will all be in action.
The No. 10 BYU Cougars (8-0, 5-0) head into their final bye week riding a 10-game winning streak. A large chunk of the credit for the eight games won this year goes to true freshman QB Bear Bachmeier. The Murrieta, CA, native originally signed with Stanford in the spring. However, he utilized the spring transfer […]
