Texas Tech football: What Red Raiders must do to beat UCF
Texas Tech will beat UCF to get to bowl eligibility
Many people believe this game will be a nip-and-tuck affair. That’s what you typically get when two 5-5 teams face off.
However, I think Tech is the superior team in most areas including the all-important defensive side of the ball. Still, the Knights’ speed on offense will give them a greater margin for error.
Football is about physicality, though and Tech is the more physical team. That’s where the home team should have the edge tonight.
Tech showed last week that you can slow a finesse offense down by controlling the line of scrimmage, even if much of that was because of the fact that the Jayhawks were without Jason Bean at QB. Tonight, that same physicality must be to the Red Raiders’ advantage.
Much will depend on Behren Morton’s health, of course. He’s going to have to make enough plays in the passing game to keep UCF’s defense honest but in the end, this will be a heavy Tahj Brooks game.
In 2015, in his final home game at Tech, Deandre Washington went off for 248 rushing yards and 3 TDs while catching four passes for 36 yards as Tech beat Kansas State. Brooks is the best Tech RB since Washington and he could be in for a similar performance tonight against one of the nation’s worst rushing defenses.
Yes, UCF beat OK State last week. That gave was a perfect storm for a Cowboys letdown, though.
Tech won’t be distracted or drunk on success like the Cowboys were after beating OU. Instead, this will be an emotional night for the 24 seniors who will be playing for possibly the final time at Jones Stadium.
Players like DTs Jaylon Hutchings and Tony Bradford as well as safety Dadrion Taylor-Demerson and Brooks will want to leave their mark at home and cement their legacy by helping the program get to a third-straight bowl game for the first time since 2007-09.
What’s more, Tech is simply a better team. UCF’s five wins have come against four poor teams and a distracted and unmotivated OK State team that had to play in a late-season Florida deluge.
If Tech can keep UCF from getting huge plays on offense, the Red Raiders will make this a rock fight and that’s not the type of game the Knights are built to win. In the end, football is about physicality and Tech has more of it and that’s why this will be a 38-28 Red Raider victory.