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Texas Tech football: What we know at the season’s halfway mark

By Matthew Conner

Sep 10, 2022; Lubbock, Texas, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire before the game against the Houston Cougars at Jones AT&T Stadium and Cody Campbell Field. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 10, 2022; Lubbock, Texas, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire before the game against the Houston Cougars at Jones AT&T Stadium and Cody Campbell Field. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports /
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Texas Tech’s running back SaRodorick Thompson (4) runs with the ball against Oklahoma State in a Big 12 football game, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2022, Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Okla.
Texas Tech’s running back SaRodorick Thompson (4) runs with the ball against Oklahoma State in a Big 12 football game, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2022, Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Okla. /

It is hard to believe but the 2022 Texas Tech football season is already at the halfway mark.  And what a daunting first six games Tech has faced.

Outside of FCS weakling Murray State to open the season, every other team Tech has played thus far has been ranked at the time they played the Red Raiders.  That’s already made this season one of the toughest in program history.

Also making 2022 rather difficult to navigate is the fact that Tech has had to face all but a quarter of play without the season’s starting quarterback, Tyler Shough.  It is the fourth time in the last five years that the player who began the season as the Red Raiders’ QB1 has missed at least five games.

As a result, Tech has had to rely on sophomore Donovan Smith for four games and redshirt freshman Behren Morton for one putting Tech in a situation where its starter at the game’s most critical position has been an underclassman in every game against an FBS opponent.  Meanwhile, all but one of those FBS opponents started an upperclassman at QB (the lone exception was Texas, which started sophomore backup, Hudson Card, against the Red Raiders).

Additionally, Tech has had to play three ranked teams on the road thus far.  That’s the most road games against ranked teams that this program has faced in an entire season since 2014.  Unfortunately, Joey McGuire is still looking for his first road win as a collegiate head coach as Tech is 0-3 on the road to start the season.

Thus, the fact that Tech is 3-3 on the season is nothing to turn one’s nose up at.  It’s been the most difficult slate Tech has faced to open a season since I started following this program in the fall of 1999 and somehow, this team is still treading water.

Now, in the back half of the season, the schedule appears to lighten up with only two remaining opponents, Baylor and TCU, currently in the top 25.  What’s more, Tech has only two more road games, at TCU and Iowa State.

Thus, when Tech returns to action on October 22nd at home against West Virginia, it will be time for the Red Raiders to make some hay.  But for now, the bye week comes at a perfect time for a banged-up Red Raider team.  And it gives us time for reflection so let’s take a look at what we know about this program after six games of the Joey McGuire era.

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