The Texas Tech Red Raider football team is so close to securing, for the first time ever, a spot in the Big 12 championship game. The Red Raiders are so close to competing for a Big 12 championship for the first time in the history of this program.
There’s just one little game that happens to be in the way here. The Texas Tech Red Raiders are on the road this week to meet up with the West Virginia Mountaineers and if Joey McGuire’s team can snag a win in Morgantown, then Texas Tech will head to Arlington, Texas to face off against an opponent that is still to be determined in the Big 12 title game.
That’s all Texas Tech has to do at this point. The Red Raiders are 10-1 overall and 7-1 in Big 12 play. All 10 of those wins came by over 20 points. This is a team that has been dominant in each of its victories. But Texas Tech has also dealt with some injury and depth issues.
And that’s where this bye week ahead of the matchup with the West Virginia Mountaineers is pretty meaningful.
Texas Tech defensive coordinator talks about the Red Raiders’ bye week and the way that could help against West Virginia
During a recent press conference, Texas Tech defensive coordinator Shiel Wood got to talk a bit about how important this bye week was as the Red Raiders just need one more win to make it to the Big 12 title game.
“Well, I think like any bye week at any point in the season, you just try to use that as an opportunity maybe to get fresh and recover a little bit, for the players, physically and mentally,” McGuire explained.
Wood was specifically asked about the Big 12 championship, but it seems like he focused a bit more on the impacts the bye week can have on the Red Raiders as a whole.
“You use it as an opportunity coaching-wise to go back and look at some of the things you’ve done well or some of the things you need to improve on,” Texas Tech’s defensive coordinator continued. “And then also just get ahead for the week’s opponent, that’s certainly what we did last week.”
The focus on West Virginia is meaningful. Texas Tech can’t take this one for granted. Getting a win here would be huge for the progress of this program. So it’s good that they rested and started focusing on this matchup.