The Texas Tech football team will wrap up its 2024 season tonight in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. Taking on former Southwest Conference rival Arkansas in Memphis, the Red Raiders hope to end the year with nine wins, which would be the most games the program has won in a season since also winning nine games in 2009, the last year of the Mike Leach era.
Tech will be counting on true freshman quarterback Will Hammond to lead the way in this contest. It is ironic that the team will have to turn to its backup to make the start in a bowl game that comes on the heels of the first regular season since 2016 in which the Red Raiders have had the same quarterback start every game of the regular season.
However, that starter, Behren Morton, was playing through a shoulder injury that required offseason surgery. Thus, he won't be able to play against the Razorbacks meaning that Tech will once have to ask a backup QB to make a start for the eighth year in a row.
Other key players that won't see the field tonight for the Red Raiders are wide receiver Josh Kelly and left tackle Dalton Merryman. Kelly is preparing for the NFL Draft while Merryman has entered the transfer portal and committed to Houston.
As of the time of this post, the status of star running back Tahj Brooks is unknown. The senior who ran for over 1,500 yards in eleven games this year is still deciding whether or not he will play in this game.
The Red Raiders have the most Bowl Appearances of any program in the Big 12 with 42. Tonight, they will look to win a bowl game for the fourth year in a row, which would be a new Texas Tech record. So let's look at all the information Red Raider fans need to know ahead of this matchup.
Texas Tech vs. Arkansas broadcast info
Kickoff: 6 p.m. Central
TV: ESPN
Play-by-Play: Anish Shroff
Analyst: Andre Ware
Sideline Reporter: Paul Carcaterra
Radio: Texas Tech Sports Network
Play-by-Play: Brian Jensen
Analyst: John Harris
Sideline Reporter: Chris Level
SiriusXM (local): Channel 84
Mobile App: Varsity Network (Texas Tech)
Texas Tech vs. Arkansas odds
Odds courtesy of FanDuel.com.
Favorite | Moneyline | Over/Under |
|---|---|---|
Texas Tech -1.5 | Texas Tech -114 | 51.5 |
Texas Tech vs. Arkansas weather forecast
High: 60
Low: 54
Skies: Cloudy
Winds: S 5-10 MPH
Rain: 16%
Texas Tech vs. Arkansas series history
Texas Tech all-time record: 8-29-0
First meeting: 1957 (Arkansas 47 - Texas Tech 26 in Little Rock, Arkansas)
Most recent meeting: 2015 (Texas Tech 35 - Arkansas 24 in Fayetteville, Arkansas)
Texas Tech vs. Arkansas game notes
All notes courtesy of TexasTech.com.
- This will be Texas Tech’s second trip to the AutoZone Liberty Bowl as the Red Raiders previously downed Mississippi State in 2021 to start their current bowl winning streak. It will be the 38th all-time meeting in the series with Arkansas and the first ever in a bowl game.
- Georgia joins Texas Tech as the only FBS team to defeat a power conference opponent in a bowl each of the last three seasons.
- Texas Tech has won nine-consecutive bowl games against unranked foes, the second-longest active streak by any team this century behind only Utah’s 10-game streak from 2001 to 2017.
- The two schools have never met at a neutral site as every previous contest in the series has taken place at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock or either War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock or Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.
- The two schools have already scheduled another future non-conference series against one another as Arkansas will travel to Lubbock during the 2030 season followed by a trip to Fayetteville by the Red Raiders a year later. The home-and-home series follows another similar scheduling agreement against fellow Southeastern Conference foe Mississippi State set for the 2028-29 campaigns.
- The Red Raiders will be facing a member of the Southeastern Conference in a bowl for the third time in the past four seasons as Texas Tech previously downed Mississippi State in its last visit to the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in 2021 and then Ole Miss in the 2022 TaxAct Texas Bowl.
- This will be the 13th time the Red Raiders will see a current SEC school in a bowl game as Texas Tech is a 4-7-1 previously in those games. In addition to its recent bowl wins over Mississippi State and Ole Miss, Texas Tech also topped No. 17 Auburn in the 1953 Gator Bowl and No. 20 Tennessee in the
1973 Gator Bowl.
- Texas Tech is 17-23-1 all-time in bowl games with wins in 12 of its last 16 contests, including in each of the past three years with victories over SEC counterparts Mississippi State in the 2021 AutoZone Liberty Bowl and Ole Miss in the 2022 TaxAct Texas Bowl. The Red Raiders followed with a 34-14 victory a year ago over Cal in the 2023 Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl.