Texas Tech’s first game of the 2025 college football season is just around the corner and we’re about to see how things go for Joey McGuire and the Red Raiders against their first foe of the year. The Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions will be in town and this is the perfect sort of warm up game to allow Texas Tech to build some momentum.
On Monday, during a press conference, McGuire got the chance to talk a bit about Texas Tech’s first game and the Golden Lions. And the head coach of the Red Raiders was pretty complimentary of the Arkansas-Pine Bluff coaching staff and their football program.
One thing that McGuire noted during his press conference is how Arkansas-Pine Bluff head coach Alonzo Hampton and the Golden Lions coaching staff might have used a problem caused by the existence of the transfer portal in a clever way to cause Texas Tech to prepare differently.
Texas Tech might have to prepare for Arkansas-Pine Bluff without a depth chart, and that’s okay
According to McGuire, it sounds like there’s a good chance that the Golden Lions won’t have a depth chart made public ahead of this game.
“I was up in my office watching different games and the tough thing with this week, and it’s like this at a lot of places, you really can see schematically what they do, but you really don’t know yet who you’re playing with the transfer portal,” McGuire said.
Yeah, the season opener is the first time that a lot of folks are going to be playing with their new teams. And it’s something that a lot of folks are going to have to adjust to.
“It’ll be interesting who they start at quarterback,” McGuire said. “He even made a comment in one of his press conferences that they might not put out a depth chart.”
I took a glance at the Arkansas-Pine Bluff website and didn’t see a depth chart. So, either I missed it, or McGuire (and Hampton) are right in that the Golden Lions don’t have one ready to share with the world ahead of this game.
“We have to prepare for everybody,” Texas Tech’s head coach said. “And we will be prepared.”
I don’t know that it’ll make much of a difference for the Red Raiders as to who Arkansas-Pine Bluff starts at quarterback. I truly don’t. Generally speaking, the talent level difference here should allow the Red Raiders to get a relatively easy win. But we’ll see soon enough.