Texas Tech football 2023 rewatch: Red Raiders run away from Houston in second half

As we continue our look back at the 2023 Texas Tech football season, we come to the week four conference home opener against Houston. The Red Raiders entered the game just 1-3 on the season and 0-1 in Big 12 play after losing a frustrating game to West Virginia the week prior.

Fortunately, the Red Raiders were able to put things together for a 49-28 win to even the team's conference record. It marked the sixth straight win in the series for the Red Raiders as Tech has not lost to Houston since 2009.

“Man, we needed that," Joey McGuire said after the game. "I was really proud of the team. When everybody got in (the locker room), the first thing I did was call (associate head coach/special teams coordinator/running backs coach) Kenny Perry up and let him celebrate a little bit with the team."

Certainly, the win had to feel especially gratifying for Perry. First of all, he is a former player for the Cougars and he began his coaching career at Houston.

What's more, though, is that both aspects of the game that Perry is responsible for, the ground game and the kicking game, proved to be massive in this win. So let's begin there, by looking at how the special teams kept the Red Raiders in the game early.

Texas Tech wins the special teams battle in a huge way

Some fans may roll their eyes when they hear a coach talk about the importance of the kicking game. After all, talking about the third side of the ball is one of the game's most tired coaching cliches. However, without the kicking game, the Red Raiders may not have come away with this win over the Cougars.

In the first quarter, Houston led 7-0 after easily driving the ball down the field after receiving the opening kickoff. Tech answered in a big way though as Drae McCray returned the ensuing kickoff 100 yards to even the score. It was the program's first kickoff return for a TD at home since Jakeem Grant in 2015.

Later in the first half, when Tech finally made Houston punt for the first time in the game after the Cougars scored on their first three possessions, wide receiver Loic Fouonji blocked the kick and returned it seven yards to put Tech ahead 28-21. Tech would never trail again.

Then, the Houston kicking game failed the Cougars again on the final play of the first half. That's when their kicker, Jack Martin, saw his 49-yard field goal bang off of the upright and fall to the ground allowing Tech to take a 35-28 lead into the intermission.

In the early portion of this game, Tech was chasing the Cougars who seemed to have all the momentum. However, two touchdowns in the kicking game seemed to stem the tide and eventually take the air out of the Cougars as they would score only seven points after giving up Fouonji's punt block.

Tech puts the clamps on Donovan Smith in the second half

One of the stories of this game was former Texas Tech QB Donovan Smith having a shot to beat his old school on its own field. In the first half, it looked like he just might pull that off as he played nearly flawless football.

Yes, Smith did throw for 335 yards and four TDs on the day. However, when the game was on the line and his team needed him to keep it in the game, Smith couldn't answer the bell.

In the second half, he was just 10-17 passing for 71 yards. Those struggles were due in large part to an improved Red Raider pass rush that got back to the basics.

“In the first half," McGuire said, "I think we were doing some things on third down that we felt could affect Smith, some different things that we put in in this game and we probably didn’t
have the reps that I want to have in, so we kind of went back to some of the stuff that we have the most reps invested in. In the first half, it was more gameplan stuff and Houston did a really good job of taking care of the gameplan that we had. We played more games up front in the second half. I think we only had one sack, but he was moving out of the pocket and that was much different from the first half.”

Smith would go on to throw for 2,801 yards and 22 TDs with 13 picks. His performance against Tech was his second-highest game of the year in terms of passing yards. But almost all of that came in the first half when his team was front-running. When it was time for him to put his team on his back, he wasn't up for the task.

Tech Tech grinds out the game on the ground

This game proved to be important because it was the first time in 2023 that Tech relied heavily on the ground game to beat an FCS opponent. In fact, the Red Raiders produced two 100-yard rushers.

As a team, Tech ran the football 37 times while throwing it only 22 times. Along the way, both Tahj Brooks and Cam'Ron Valdez would top the 100-yard mark.

While no one was shocked to see Brooks go for 101 yards and two TDs on 22 carries, Valdez's 111-yard performance was one that caught everyone by surprise. It remains his only 100-yard game as a collegiate and it accounted for 38.8% of his season rushing output.

In the second half, Morton was asked to throw the football only eight times. That was in part because (though we didn't know it at the time) he was dealing with a sprained shoulder. But it was also because Tech simply dominated Houston's defense physically.

This would be an important game in that regard because it was one in which offensive coordinator Zach Kittley would learn that he could win Big 12 contests by feeding the rock to his running backs, especially Tahj Brooks. The recipe he found in this game was one he would use for the rest of the season as he navigated the rest of the year with a wounded QB.