Iowa State Football: 2018 Game-by-game predictions
8. Texas Tech (Oct. 27)
Coming off a bye week following the historic upset of West Virginia, the Cyclones welcome Kliff Kingsbury’s Texas Tech Red Raiders to Ames for a week eight showdown. Iowa State has won the last two meetings in the series, with last year’s result of 31-13, and 2016’s annihilation of the Red Raiders by a final of 66-10. This game might be crucial for Kingsbury as he could very well be on the hot seat coming into this ballgame.
Texas Tech had many ups and downs throughout the 2017 season. Ups included their wins against Arizona State and arch-rival Texas, and the downs included their shellackings at the hands of TCU and Oklahoma, who was led by ex-Red Raider quarterback Baker Mayfield. The Red Raiders do have shoes to fill at quarterback with the graduation of Nic Shimonek and McLane Carter looks to be the man to fill that void.
The Red Raiders program simply hasn’t been very consistent since they fired Mike Leach following the 2009 season. While the high-flying offense has remained, it’s shown more and more inconsistencies, and Matt Campbell’s crew has found many ways to expose and they will do it once more as Iowa State wins this one by a comfortable margin.