Insights on the 2024 Texas Tech football schedule

Texas Tech will have three home games in a row

Long home stands are rare in college football but Tech has a stretch of three games in a row at home from weeks 3-5. In week three, UNT comes to town followed by Arizona State and Cincinnati to open Big 12 play.

Last year, the combined record of those three teams was just 11-27 and not much is going to be expected of them in 2024 either. Thus, this is a chance for the Red Raiders to get on a roll early in the season. That's something that has been a problem in the McGuire era.

Last fall, Tech started just 2-3 through five games and in 2022, McGuire's team was only 3-2 after five games. This year, anything less than 4-1 after week five would be a massive disappointment and a 5-0 start should be the expectation, especially if Tech can navigate the week two trip to Washington State.

On the other side of the coin, there is only one multi-game road trip this season. On October 26, Tech will be in Fort Worth to face off with TCU, and the week later is the trip to Ames. That's the benefit of a seven-game home slate, you can have a long home stand and still not have a schedule backloaded with road trips.

This year, Tech needs to get off to a good start to have a chance at competing for a Big 12 title game spot. That is more likely with four of the first five games at home given how well this program has performed in Lubbock during the McGuire era.