{"id":102634,"date":"2025-11-28T10:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/28\/no-5-texas-tech-chases-berth-in-big-12-title-game-braces-for-west-virginia\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T10:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:34:08","slug":"no-5-texas-tech-chases-berth-in-big-12-title-game-braces-for-west-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/28\/no-5-texas-tech-chases-berth-in-big-12-title-game-braces-for-west-virginia\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 5 Texas Tech chases berth in Big 12 title game, braces for West Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<section id=\"0\" class=\" w-full\">\n<div class=\"xl:container mx-0 !px-4 py-0 pb-4 !mx-0 !px-0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.deadspin.com\/tr:w-900\/27596456.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.deadspin.com\/tr:w-900\/27596456.jpg\" alt=\"NCAA Football: Central Florida at Texas Tech\" class=\"w-full\" fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\"\/><span class=\"text-0.8 leading-tight\">Nov 15, 2025; Lubbock, Texas, USA;  Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire watches the big screen in the first half against the Central Florida Knights at Jones AT&amp;T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-Imagn Images<!-- --> <!-- --> <\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-1\">\n<p>After a full week of rest, No. 5 Texas Tech will be out to make a statement Saturday afternoon when it closes out its regular-season schedule with a visit to West Virginia at Morgantown, W. Va.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-2\">\n<p>The Red Raiders (10-1, 7-1 Big 12) have a chance to earn their first-ever spot in the conference championship game with a victory and all but clinch a spot in the College Football Playoff.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-3\">\n<p>Texas Tech also can clinch a spot in the Big 12 championship game if Arizona State loses to rival Arizona on Friday night.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-4\">\n<p>The Red Raiders enter on a four-game winning streak and are set to play in their first road game since a 43-20 victory at Kansas State on Nov. 1. Their previous road game, Oct. 18 at Arizona State, ended in a 26-22 defeat.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-5\">\n<p>A victory would match the program&#8217;s 2008 season for most regular-season wins.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-6\">\n<p>&#8220;Our guys know exactly what is at stake,&#8221; Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire said. &#8220;When this all started, if you told us coming into the last game if we win, we&#8217;re in, we (now) know that&#8217;s the case so we&#8217;re planning on being ready to play.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-7\">\n<p>While Texas Tech&#8217;s defense has held opponents to 12.3 points per game and 266.1 yards, both of which lead the conference, the offense is second in the Big 12 with 481.6 yards per game.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-8\">\n<p>Behren Morton completed 14 of 19 passes for 149 yards and a touchdown in a 48-9 romp over UCF on Nov. 15 before he was replaced by Mitch Griffis, who was 13 of 17 for 145 yards.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/p>\n<section id=\"section-9\">\n<p>Morton, who took over after Will Hammond was lost for the season with an injury, has been playing through his own lower leg injury. McGuire suggested that Morton is on track to play against West Virginia.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-10\">\n<p>&#8220;Yeah, he feels great,&#8221; McGuire said. &#8220;You know, we kept him in a boot all last week. He actually went through everything. It was a shorter practice (Sunday), but he went through everything &#8212; he just was in the boot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-11\">\n<p>Not only has Texas Tech earned all of its victories by at least 22 points, it has an average margin of victory of 33.8 points. In their latest statement, linebacker Jacob Rodriguez took a turn lining up at quarterback and scored on a 2-yard run. He also intercepted a pass.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-12\">\n<p>West Virginia (4-7, 2-6) absorbed a 25-23 setback to Arizona State on Nov. 15 before taking a week off heading into Saturday&#8217;s game.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-13\">\n<p>With running backs Jahiem White and Tye Edwards already out for the season with injuries, freshman back Diore Hubbard also will miss the final game with an unspecified injury. Hubbard was limited to two carries against Arizona State.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-14\">\n<p>The Mountaineers&#8217; running game will be in the hands of Cyncir Bowers and Curtis Jones. Bowers has rushed for 246 yards on 58 carries this season with two touchdowns.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-15\">\n<p>Freshman Scotty Fox Jr. is West Virginia&#8217;s fourth starting quarterback this season. He delivered a season-high 353 yards passing with two touchdowns and an interception against Arizona State.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-16\">\n<p>&#8220;I know a lot of teams are like, \u2018Boy, we&#8217;ve battled some injuries,&#8217; when they lost one guy,&#8221; Mountaineers head coach Rich Rodriguez said. &#8220;How about losing three or four at that position. So, we&#8217;ll get it all out of the way this year and then, go from there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-17\">\n<p>&#8211;Field Level Media<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/deadspin.com\/no-5-texas-tech-chases-berth-in-big-12-title-game-braces-for-west-virginia\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nov 15, 2025; Lubbock, Texas, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire watches the big screen in the first half against the Central<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}