Texas Tech football announces kick times for first three games of 2024 season

It seems like forever until the Texas Tech football team kicks off the 2024 season at the end of August. However, we now have kick times for the first three games of the season.

On August 31, the Red Raiders will open the season at home against Abilene Christian at 6:30 PM Central. The game will be televised on ESPN+.

This game will be the team's annual contest against an FCS program. Fortunately, the Red Raiders have not fallen victim to the FCS upset in quite a long time.

ACU head coach Keith Patterson is a former Texas Tech defensive coordinator under Matt Wells from 2019-21. Last season, he led the Wildcats to a record of 5-6 overall and 3-3 in conference play.

The Red Raiders have made it a practice of opening up seasons at home against teams from the lower level of the sport. For instance, in 2022 Tech opened with Murray State in Joey McGuire's Red Raider debut as head coach. What's more, Tech opened with an FCS team in 2020 and 2019.

Game two of the 2024 season will see Tech travel to Pullman, Washington to take on Washington State. That game will kick off at 9 p.m. Central on FOX. Thus, it will be a 7 p.m. kick for the home team which will make for an interesting atmosphere for the Red Raiders in their first road game of the season.

Of course, this game was originally supposed to be at Oregon against the Ducks but the Red Raiders agreed to swap games with the Ducks so that Oregon could continue its rivalry with Oregon State in the wake of the PAC 12's demise. Now, the Red Raiders are set to head to Pullman for the first time ever.

The only times the Red Raiders and Cougars have met were in 1963 and 1964. Each of those games was played in Lubbock, though. In both instances, Tech came out on top.

The third game of the year could be a hot one on September 14. Kicking off at 11 a.m. Central at home against North Texas, the Jones Stadium turf could be roasting when the Mean Green come calling. The game will be shown on FS1.

Interestingly, these programs have split eight all-time meetings. The last time they met was in 2001, a 42-14 Red Raider win in Denton.

North Texas does have a history of success in Lubbock, though. The Mean Green was triumphant at Jones Stadium in 1988, 1997, and 1999.

There are ties between Tech and UNT as former Red Raider inside receiver and offensive coordinator Eric Morris is now the head coach in Denton. Last year, his team was 5-7 overall and 3-5 in conference action.

Those are the only kick times we have for now. Once the season begins, the Big 12 allows TV partners to wait until 13 days before a game to announce a kickoff time (and in some cases, the kick isn't announced until six days before the game). But at least the revelation of the first three kickoff times is a sign that football season is on the horizon, even if that horizon feels like it is a long...long way in the distance.