Texas Tech football: 3 matchups to watch Saturday vs. UT

Texas Tech football fans need to keep an eye on these three matchups Saturday as the Red Raiders take on the Texas Longhorns.

As far as Texas Tech football fans are concerned, week one’s game against Houston Baptist is one that we’d like to forget ever happened.  But for Texas head coach Tom Herman, it’s the only bit of game film that he has to go by when evaluating the 2020 Red Raiders.  And based on what he said Monday, he might be viewing Tech’s 35-33 win over HBU a bit differently than most Tech fans do.

"“It’s difficult to get a bead on Texas Tech’s defensive philosophy simply because we know what a potent throwing attack HBU is…” Herman said.  “Any time you are playing a team that’s one heavy on one side or the other, run or pass, that’s going to affect your defensvie game plan a little bit.”"

But there’s reason to think that regardless of the philosophy the Red Raiders may have on that side of the football, it will be a feeding frenzy for the Texas offense unless Tech has made miraculous strides over the course of the season’s first bye week.

As such, many believe that the best hope for Tech this weekend will be for a shootout in which Alan Bowman can outduel UT’s Sam Ehlinger.  And Herman spoke highly of the Red Raider signal-caller, a player his team has yet to face.

"“We’d always thought that when healthy, this guy is one of the better ones in the Big 12 and I think he proved that two Saturday’s ago…,” Herman said.  “We definitely know he is more than capable, he is, again, one of the better ones in our league, and we have our work cut out for us.”"

Interestingly, this will be the first Big 12 team Bowman has faced since November of 2018 when he played a sterling first half against Oklahoma in Lubbock before leaving the game at halftime with his second collapsed lung of the season.  And how he handles what we hope is his first run through the Big 12 will be part of what defines his Red Raider career.

Keep in mind that Bowman has only started and finished three games in conference play.  In those contests, he’s 2-1 with wins over Oklahoma State and Kansas and a loss to Iowa State.

So in a sense, most of the Big 12 is in the same position as Herman’s program when it comes to facing the Red Raiders with Bowman.  Thus, the matchup between the Texas defense and Bowman will be fascinating to watch on Saturday afternoon.

But let’s take a look at some other matchups that will shape this contest and as we do, we will see that there are ways that the Red Raiders can make this one more interesting than most expect.