Texas Tech May Be Team of Destiny
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Could there be a team of college football destiny in Lubbock, Texas?
After years of the Air Raid offense and near-misses for Southwest Conference championships before joining the Big 12 Conference prior to the 1996 season, the Raiders have bulked up their defense and kept up the scoring prowess en route to their first Edward Jones Big 12 Championship on Dec. 6 with a 34-7 thumping of then-11-1 BYU (with the Cougars only two losses through 13 games to the No. 4 nationally Red Raiders) at AT&T Stadium.
And the moment was not lost on popular Texas high school coaching legend and now-Big 12 strongman Tech head coach Joey McGuire.
“I have coached 14 games in this building (AT&T Stadium going back to the first high school games there in September 2009 in the Kirk Herbstreit High School Classic) at Cedar Hill High School and then at Baylor,” he said with a smile, :and this has to be the most enjoyable one. Our president and gentlemen like Cody Campbell made a commitment to help develop a championship program at Texas Tech, and this team has played up to its potential.
“Gosh, this game was just a see of red (Big 12 title game record 85,519 attendance),” he continued, “and I can’t thank our fans enough for their amazing support. We heard them on the field.”
Butkus Award linebacker Jacob Rodriguez of the Red Raiders had similar thoughts after making a team-best 13 tackles and helping hold high-flying BYU to 200 yards of total offense – 63 passing and 137 rushing – with just 110 yards allowed after an opening, 90-yard scoring drive by the Cougars.
“It is a process through the whole season,” he noted, “and then today I'm looking at 80 percent, 90 percent of the stadium is wearing red. That's huge to see. I know Red Raiders always travel well, and they've always have our back. It was great to see and great to hear.”
After defeating their 12th opponent by 20 points or more (a feat not accomplished by a NCAA FBS-level team since official NCAA statistics-keeping started in 1936), the Red Raiders saw their only 2025 blemish in a 26-22 setback at 2024 Big 12 winner and CFP competitor Arizona State and then rolled through the rest of the schedule into their first CFP rankings (tops at fourth) and first CFP appearance in the 12-season history of this version of the national championship.
And the 12-1 Red Raiders uprooted BYU’s offense for 34 consecutive points (with the possibility of more despite a pair of missed field goals in a stadium-record-tying six attempts by specialist Stone Harrington) as linebacker Ben Roberts (game Most Outstanding Player) had a pair of tip-drill interceptions and QB Behren Morton produced an efficient 20-of-33 passing day for 215 yards and two TDs.
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake indicated that Big 12 Freshman of the Year QB Bear Bachmeier (wearing the unusual uniform No. 47 for a signal caller) played the contest with a lower leg injury and was not as much of a dual threat (he rushed nine times for a net -2 yards and was 16-of-27 passing for 115 yards after being sacked twice and harassed by the Red Raiders pass rush all afternoon) as he had been throughout the campaign.
“No excuses,” Sitake said. “We knew Bear was fighting that injury, and he probably got hit there several times, but he gutted it out. No matter what the College Football Playoff committee decides Sunday, I believe BYU deserves attention with 11 victories and out only two losses to the No. 4 team in the country (29-7 Tech win at Lubbock in October).”
Sitake’s crew just missed the final pairings the next day as the Big 12’s lone bid went to Texas Tech, and the Nos. 11 and 12 teams in the draw were Group of Five conference winners Tulane (American) and James Madison (Sun Belt).
The Cougars now have some welcome days off before another tough task against Georgia Tech in Orlando on Dec. 27 at the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando.
On the other end of the spectrum, Tech’s bye will mean a Thursday, Jan. 1, first-ever appearance in the Capital One Orange Bowl against the winner of the Dec. 20 James Madison at Oregon first round College Football Playoff matchup.
At least two national writers have projected the Raid Raiders to take the CFP crown from their past performances, and this writer, among others, agrees.
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Bo Carter, a veteran of over 50 years in college media relations, is no stranger to communications, college athletics, and the business world. Carter also served as student media adviser and adjunct mass communications instructor at the University of North Texas, Texas Wesleyan University and Texas Woman’s University from 2009-14. He also has been a consultant and columnist with the National Football Foundation since August 2006 after working with the Big 12 Conference for 10 years and the Texas Collegiate League in 2006. Carter, a native of Sheffield, Ala., and 1974 cum laude graduate in classics at Vanderbilt, has been associated with conference and school athletics media relations since 1970. He was named to the College Sports Information Directors Hall of Fame in July 2005, the Vanderbilt Student Media Hall of Fame in 2025 and completed a Masters degree in journalism at the University of North Texas in August 2006.