Oregon State at Texas Tech
Is it any surprise that the team with the most dramatic mascot—the Texas Tech Red Rider and horse—had the Pirate Mike Leach as their head coach at one time. From 2000-2009 Leach advanced and popularized the Air Raid offense and was always near the top in points scored—leading the NCAA in passing yards four years in a row. However, If Red Raider head coach Joey McGuire has his way this year’s team may be known more for their tough defense. As reported by Matthew Conner from information obtained at the College Football Select website; “Last season, Tech fielded one of the worst defenses in the nation and one of the worst in program history. 2024 saw Tech rank 126th in total defense (460.2 yards per game allowed) and 121st in scoring defense (34.8 points per game allowed). What’s more, Tech was 132nd in passing yards allowed (308.1). That’s why head coach Joey McGuire decided to fire former defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter and replace him with Houston DC Shiel Wood. What’s more, the Red Raiders have signed nine defensive transfers [out of the portal] to fortify that side of the ball.” Apparently, according to the Dallas Morning News, whatever they did seems to be working. As reported by Ty Kaplan in his article for the Dallas Morning News entitled; 5 takeaways from Texas Tech’s win over Oregon State: Red Raiders’ run defense impresses. “Texas Tech has held its first three opponents to a combined 35 points, the lowest since 2012. [Their] defense [has] propelled the Red Raiders to a 3-0 start for the first time since 2021 with a commanding 45-14 victory over Oregon State on Saturday. Defensive back Brice Pollock snagged a pair of interceptions, while his front seven limited the Beavers to a season-low seven rushing yards . . . It took until McGuire mass substituted his starters in the fourth quarter for Oregon State to score.
Well, now you know what happened. As far as the Beavers go, it was ugly for sure as Oregon State’s first three possessions of the game were back-to-back-to-back three-and-outs. Their fourth, a missed field goal. By then Texas Tech had already scored two TD’s to go up 14-0 at the end of one. Oregon State had a great chance at the start of the 2nd Qtr after intercepting Tech’s Senior QB Behren Morton on the 7th play of their opening 2nd Qtr Drive. But their opportunity to keep the game tight disappeared when their own QB, Maalik Murphy got picked off himself, leading to back-to-back TD’s by the Red Raiders on either side of another three-and-out by their defense to go up 28-0 at the break.
The third quarter was more of the same with Texas Tech scoring twice to go up 38-0, first with a TD on their opening possession of the second half and then on a field goal after picking Maalik Murphy off for the second time. Holding the Beavers to another three-and-out to start the 4th Qtr the Red Raiders would make it 45-0 on a 4 yard TD run by Cameron Dickey at the end of a 9 play 55 yard drive. After Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire began sitting down some of his defensive starters Oregon State was finally able to get their first points on the board with five minutes left in the game on a 6 yard TD pass from Murphy to Bryce Caufield, and then again after an interception of the Red Raider Freshman backup QB Will Hammond. Final score—45-14—ouch! Maybe this ugly was good prep for the ugly they’ll be facing this coming Saturday in Eugene as they take on their in-state rival No. 4 Oregon.
Washington State at North Texas
It turned out to be a bad day for both orphan PAC-12 schools as Washington State got beat up on the road against the North Texas Mean Green to the tune of 59-10. North Texas got the ball to start and found the end zone on their first possession at the end of a 10 play 75 yard drive on a 7 yard TD run by their Sophomore RB Makenzie McGill. They would score again just three minutes later after Junior Safety Evan Jackson would pick off Cougar Sophomore QB Jaxxon Potter on the fifth play of their possession and run it back 60 yards into the Washington State Red Zone. One play later Jayden Becks would take it into the end zone on a 12 yard run to make it 14-0 with six minutes left in the quarter—time enough for Washington State to finally get on the board with a Jack Steven 25 yard field goal to tighten the score just a bit at 14-3 at the end of the 1st Qtr.
Washington State started out the 2nd Qtr by holding the Mean Green to five plays and a punt. But they kept getting in their own way with an interception eight plays later, a fumble on their next possession, then a three-and-out, another interception, and another fumble while North Texas, after being forced to punt on their first two possessions, scored touchdowns on their next four of the period to go up 42-3 at the half. The Cougars were no more successful after the break getting held on back-to-back three-and-outs in the 3rd Qtr while the Mean Green put up ten more points—first on a 26 yard field goal and then a 2 yard TD pass from Freshman QB Drew Mestermaker to Sophomore Ethan Day making it 52-3 after three. After the Cougars punted to start the 4th Qtr most of the clock was eaten up on two long touchdown drives by both teams. North Texas got their score on a 3 yard TD run by Freshman RB Caleb Hawkins while the Cougars’ score came on a similar run by Senior QB Zev Eckhaus to give us the final 59-10 blowout loss.
For Washington State, Sophomore QB Jaxon Potter was 16-of-23 for 139 yards, no TD’s and three interceptions while Senior QB Zev Eckhaus connected on 7-of-10 for 72 yards, no TD’s and no interceptions but did pick up their only rushing TD. The ground game was almost non-existent—28 attempts for just 64 yards and a 2.3 yard average-per-carry. For the North Texas Green Machine, the starting Freshman QB Drew Mestemaker connected on over 80% of his passes multiple times to 10 different receivers for 211 of their 247 yards in the air, 4 TD’s and no interceptions with Junior WR Landon Sides, Senior TE Tre Williams, Sophomore TE Brandon Young Jr., and Sophomore DL Ethan Day all the recipients of one of those scores. On the ground they were just as lethal, rushing 29 times for 163 yards and 4 more TD’s—one each to Sophomore RB Makenzie Magill and Freshman RB Caleb Hawkins with Junior RB Jayden Becks picking up two. Collectively the three rushed for 158 of that 163 yard total.
North Texas led in first downs, 24-to-17; total yards of offense, 410-to-275; were successful on 3rd down 50% of the time and 100% on 4th down attempts; and importantly had no turnovers compared to five for the Cougarsl—four of which led to TD’s representing almost half of the Green Machine’s final score. For Washington State, the good news is they get to go back home, the bad news—they’re playing the Washington Huskies in the Apple Cup this coming Saturday.