Texas Tech’s Rise to Prominence
HOUSTON — Hours after their team bus passed droves of friendly tailgates stationed in enemy territory, and not that long after scattered tortillas rained down from the TDECU Stadium’s highest levels, Texas Tech’s players packed inside a cramped make-shift media room and reckoned with the moment.
“It’s different from what I’m used to,” defensive end David Bailey, a Stanford transfer, said. “I’m just trying to take it all in and enjoy it.”
Take your time.
The wait’s been worth it.
Current State of Texas Tech Football
Texas Tech, still undefeated after Saturday’s 35-11 win over Houston in front of a sold-out crowd that quarterback Behren Morton classified as a home game, is now more than just a plucky upstart with a sizable bankroll led by a former high school coach whose reviews are unimpeachable.
The Red Raiders (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) are on the doorstep of college football’s upper crust. They can invade it on Sunday in the same manner that their fanbase did a stadium eight hours from home.
Texas Tech could garner a single-digit ranking in Sunday’s AP Top 25 poll for the first time since the 2008 season. It’s already the Big 12’s top-ranked team and left no doubt Saturday when its defensive front swallowed the Cougars (4-1, 1-1) and its offense rolled for 552 yards to blemish what had been a perfect record. It’s now among the nation’s best — by way of record, statistics and performance — and can safely stake claim as the second-best team in its home state.
Coach Joey McGuire’s Perspective
“There was a lot of times that we felt like we could’ve scored more points than what we did,” head coach Joey McGuire said. “But, at the end of the day, there were teams that went on the road that were expected to win and didn’t. There were teams that went on the road and had dogfights like this and couldn’t handle the adversity.”
McGuire, thrice a state champion at Cedar Hill, didn’t go into specific details on which teams he’d referenced. Here’s a few guesses: No. 9 Texas, the top-ranked preseason team, was upset on the road by a Florida team that’d previously been in the midst of a spiral. No. 7 Penn State, a College Football Playoff participant last year, lost across the country to a UCLA team that fired its head coach two weeks ago.
Red Raiders’ Performance
All the Red Raiders did was navigate their own redzone inefficiencies, pass for 345 yards against one of the nation’s best statistical aerial defenses, rush for another couple hundred while shutting out the Cougars in the game’s final two quarters. They’ve won each of their first five games by at least 24 points and are a top-12 team nationally in both total offense and defense.
That, coupled with the upset losses from Texas and Penn State, has opened a window for the Red Raiders to slide into single-digit territory. Texas A&M, ranked No. 6 and still undefeated after a Saturday win vs. Mississippi State, is the only team within the state of Texas that should be ranked ahead of them come Sunday afternoon.
Comparison with Other Teams
The Longhorns have two losses and have hardly looked comfortable on offense against legitimate competition. TCU and Baylor, with one and two losses respectively, are at least a tier below Texas Tech, and SMU couldn’t beat either of them. The Red Raiders entered this week with the fifth-best SP+ rating — which ESPN describes as a “measure of college football efficiency” that’s based on the quality of each team’s games — in the country. They were the only team outside of the Big 10 ranked within the top five.
Player’s Perspective
“We’ve got one goal and mission and we’re going to accomplish that mission,” Morton, a senior who’s spent his entire career in Lubbock, said. “It’s been a really cool change of program culture that I’ve seen at Texas Tech. From winning, man, five, four games a year to doing what we’re doing now speaks volumes of coach McGuire and what he’s doing for this program.”
He was asked to consider the possibility that Texas Tech could be a top-10 team by the time it hosts Kansas next weekend.
“The standard is the standard,” Morton said. “We’re going to play at our standard of football every week and see where the polls take us.”
The standard has taken them pretty far thus far.
Texas Tech has held Big 12 dual-threat quarterbacks to a combined 34 rushing yards in 2025.
Panelists from The Dallas Morning News, The Ticket and NBC5 select outcomes for college football games, straight and against the spread.
