Preview: Tech heads to Baylor for Big 12 finale - Texas Tech Red Raiders (2024)

LUBBOCK, Texas– All but two games remain on the schedule for the Texas Tech football team as the season nears its end, this Saturday's regular season finale at Baylor, and a yet to be determined bowl destination. This week'spost-Thanksgiving regular season finalekicks off bright and early at 11 a.m. between the longtime rivals. In what will be the 80th all-time meeting between the twoprograms, Tech (6-5, 3-4 Big 12) is seeking its seventh win of 2021 toboost its bowl resume while Baylor (9-2, 6-2 Big 12)remains in the hunt for a spot in Big 12 Championship Gameon Dec. 4.

Television coverage will be provided by FS1with Dan Hellie providing the play-by-play, joined byanalyst Robert Smith in the booth.Fans can access the game from their mobile or streaming device by using the FOX Sports 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, sideline reporter Chris Level and engineer Steve Pitts. The radio broadcast can also be heard on XM channel 200, Sirius channel 113 or via theTuneInapp.

INSIDE THE SERIES

• Texas Tech and Baylor will meet for the 80th time this weekend in a back-and-forth series that is now tied at 39-39-1 all-time entering this weekend. The Red Raiders tied the series last season following a come-from-behind 24-23 victory that was capped by a 25-yard game-winning field goal from Jonathan Garibay as time expired.
• The two schools are in their third year of returning the Texas Farm Bureau Shootout back to campus sites after playing the previous 10 meetings in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The Red Raiders were only 4-6 against the Bears during that span but are 18-7 over the course of the Big 12 era.
• The Bears escaped with a win in Texas Tech's last visit to Waco as Baylor needed double overtime to edge the Red Raiders, 33-30. It marked Tech's only lost to the Bears in Waco during the Big 12 era as the Red Raiders were previously 6-0 at Floyd Casey Stadium, Baylor's previous home before moving to McLane Stadium.
• The Red Raiders have now won three of the last five meetings against Baylor after claiming back-to-back victories in 2016 and 2017 and then last year's in Lubbock. Baylor claimed the two other games in that span with a 35-24 victory in the final game played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington followed by its double-overtime win in 2019.
• Texas Tech and Baylor combined for only 47 points in the 2020 meeting between the two schools, the fewest since the Red Raiders pulled off a 20-13 victory in 2009. In the 10 meetings in between those two games, 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.
• 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.

CAREER NOTABLES VERSUS THE BEARS

• Baylor head coach Dave Aranda has experience on the Texas Tech sidelines 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 accepted the Baylor job after helping lead LSU to the College Football Playoff national title. He was assisted on the LSU staff by current Texas Tech linebackers coach Kevin Cosgrove, who was a senior defensive analyst for the Tigers in 2019. Baylor defensive line coach Dennis Johnson was also an analyst on the LSU staff that same season before accepting his current position with the Bears.
• 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.
• 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.
• Texas Tech named its 17th head coach in program history on Nov. 9 when Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt announced the hiring of Joey McGuire, who was in the midst of his fifth season on the Baylor staff. McGuire, who will assume head coaching duties immediately following the completion of the 2021 season, 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. McGuire, who is not expected to travel to Waco this weekend, has already hired one member of the Baylor staff in James Blanchard, who will serve as Texas Tech's new Director of Player Personnel.

WE'RE GOING BOWLING

• The Red Raiders secured their postseason fate after Texas Tech captured its sixth win of the year with a 41-38 victory over Iowa State on Nov. 13. The win helped the Red Raiders avoid their first four-year bowl absence since staying home from postseason play over eight consecutive seasons from 1978-85. Texas Tech's most-recent bowl absence (2017-20) was the longest the Red Raiders had gone without a bowl trip since missing the postseason from 1990-92.
• Texas Tech entered this season ranked tied for 21st all-time with 38 career bowl appearances, matching the totals of fellow Big 12 member West Virginia as well as Ole Miss, BYU and Notre Dame. The Red Raiders are tied for third among current Big 12 members for bowl appearances, trailing only Texas (57) and Oklahoma (54).
• Many Red Raider fans will be keeping up with possible bowl scenarios over the upcoming weeks. The projections are scattered to this point with possible destinations primarily focused on the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Arizona as well as the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. Texas Tech will officially learn its bowl destination on Dec. 5 following the completion of conference championships.

RED RAIDERS IN REGULAR-SEASON FINALES

• Texas Tech enters this weekend's tilt at Texas with a 47-46-4 all-time record in regular-season finales, which includes a 14-11 mark during the Big 12 era (1996-present). The Red Raiders have closed the regular season with wins in four of the past six seasons after topping Texas in both 2015 and 2017, Baylor in 2016 and then Kansas a year ago.
• The Red Raiders are no stranger to closing the regular season against Baylor as the two schools have done so seven times since 2008 alone with Texas Tech going 3-4 in those contests. The only other time in history where Tech has closed its regular season came in 1976 when the Red Raiders downed No. 18 Baylor, 24-21, in Lubbock to secure its first share of the Southwest Conference title. Rodney Allison rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns in that game as the quarterback for a Tech program under the direction of head coach Steve Sloan that also featured two future NFL head coaches in Romeo Crennel and Bill Parcells.

RANDOM TIDBITS HEADING INTO BAYLOR GAME

• With a win over Baylor or a future bowl opponent, Texas Tech will clinch its first winning season since 2015 when the Red Raiders finished 7-6 overall after a loss in the Texas Bowl. The Red Raiders advanced to a bowl in 2017, finishing 6-6 in the regular season before a loss to South Florida in the Birmingham Bowl.
• Texas Tech opened the month of November with a victory for the second time in the last three seasons as the Red Raiders previously went on the road to top West Virginia, 38-17, in 2019. Prior to that win, Tech had not previously started the final month of the regular season with a win since a 27-17 victory over No. 14 Missouri in 2010.
• The month of November hasn't been overly kind to the Red Raiders in recent years as Texas Tech has finished with multiple wins just twice since the start of the 2011 campaign. During that span, the Red Raiders were able to notch a pair of wins during the 2015 and 2017 seasons. Prior to that, the Red Raiders had won at least two games during the final month of the regular season in 12-consecutive years, beginning in 1999 and running up until 2010. Of note, Tech did close the 2020 season with wins in two of its last three games, but the final contest against Kansas did not come until Dec. 5 as part of an altered schedule due to COVID-19.
• Texas Tech owns three wins away from home this season after victories already at a neutral site against Houston and then at West Virginia and Kansas. If the Red Raiders are able to close the regular season with a win at Baylor, it would mark the most victories on the road or a neutral site since 2017 when the Red Raiders headed home with victories over Houston, Kansas, Baylor (AT&T Stadium - Arlington) and Texas.
• Texas Tech's first two conference wins this season came on the road as the Red Raiders won at West Virginia and Kansas. It marked the first time Tech has secured back-to-back Big 12 road wins since 2018 when the Red Raiders opened their league slate with a 41-17 rout of No. 15 Oklahoma State and then followed with a 17-14 victory at TCU.