We’ll find out pretty quick when the Red Raiders (2-1) host Arizona State (3-0) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the conference opener for both teams at Lubbock’s Jones AT&T Stadium. The game will be televised on FS1.
Tech is coming off a 66-21 shellacking of the Mean Green at home last week as the Red Raiders took out their frustrations from the previous two performances against Abilene Christian (a 52-51 win in OT) and at Washington State (37-16 loss).
If anybody hasn’t noticed, ASU is not the same team as it was last year when it went 3-9 and battled through a lot of injuries in head coach Kenny Dillingham’s first year in Tempe. The Sun Devils beat up on Wyoming (48-7) to begin the year and has won a pair of close games against Mississippi State (30-23) — coached by Andrews grad Jeff Lebby — and at Texas State (31-28), where ASU scored 11 unanswered points to close the game.
“I think they should be ranked,” Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said. “They’re 3-0 and have been really dominant at times. They’re outscoring their opponents 75 to 30-something in the first half. They start really fast. We’ve got to build on what we did and that’s holding our leverage and tackling the football. Having (running back Tahj Brooks) back made a big difference with how (quarterback Behren Morton) played and those two guys are a tough combination whenever they’re together.”
There’s no question that getting a healthy Brooks going in the running game will be crucial on Saturday but this will ultimately come down to how the Red Raider defense plays.
Last week against UNT, the defense did a good job, especially in the first half, of containing the Mean Green offense thanks in part to three turnovers as Tech built a 52-7 lead at the half.
The Red Raiders need to especially keep an eye out for redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Leavitt, who’s a threat to also run with the ball much like Washington State’s John Mateer, who gashed the Red Raiders for 197 rushing yards.
“We’ve got to do a much better job than we did in week two, whenever (Leavitt) starts to scramble, we’ve got to force him to where we want to go instead of letting him run around the field,” McGuire said.
“(Last week’s performance) makes a big difference, confidence-wise,” McGuire said. “The first two games defensively – the staff, me and that side of the ball with players – we were kind of on our heels. This isn’t what we expected, this isn’t how we expected to play. As I said in the locker room on Saturday, this was a lot more of what we expected to play like. Now we’ve got to do the same thing again. Nobody cares what you did last Saturday, that’s in the past.”
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