Texas football: Can Longhorns avoid Big 12 upset bug against Texas Tech?

Texas football is looking to build on a monster opening win over UTEP with a statement victory against Texas Tech in Week 4.

For Texas, this season was all about high hopes and with the core of important players and Sam Ehlinger’s senior season, they have hopes of winning a Big 12 title to cap off his career.

Texas blasted UTEP 59-3 in its season opening victory back in Week 2. Although, that may not be impressive to some, considering how the rest of the Big 12 did that week, it put the Longhorns on notice.

The AP took enough recognition of that and moved Texas up six spots from No. 14 all the way to No. 8.

One of the main questions for this offense is, who was going to step up from the receiving corps? A team that relied heavily on Devin Duvernay and Collin Johnson, at times, needed a true No. 1 to emerge from the pack. Although Texas didn’t quite get that answer against UTEP, they found candidates they could use against Texas Tech.

Guys like Joshua Moore and Malcolm Epps played well, but it was a group effort as seven different players caught a touchdown pass.

For Texas Tech, it was a near disaster against FCS Houston Baptist. A consensus issue with the Red Raiders has always been their pass defense in years past. That ugly face appeared once again, as the Red Raiders’ secondary got torched to the tune of 567 yards.

Senior quarterback Bailey Zappe had his way with Texas Tech, and for a team that just scored seven passing touchdowns in Texas, that’s a recipe for disaster.

Junior quarterback Alan Bowman had a very good day and threw the football really well, with KeShawn Carter leading in receiving with 86 yards and a score.

Players like cornerback Adrian Frye, Zech McPhearson, and Thomas Leggett will need to come up huge if Texas Tech wants to hang in this contest.

Here’s how you can watch Saturday’s game between the Longhorns and Red Raiders.

Date: Saturday, Sept. 26
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
Location: Lubbock, Texas
Venue: Jones AT&T Stadium
TV: FOX
Live Stream: FOX Sports Go

Keys to Victory

The receiving corps of Texas versus Texas Tech’s secondary is going to be one of extreme note. It has already been addressed, but the amount of pressure these Tech defensive backs need to put on Texas is going to be so crucial.

Particularly for an offense that didn’t quite run the football with extreme efficiency, anyway to get a leg up on the Horns will be the crucial for Texas Tech. Linebacker Riko Jeffries is a name to remember as he was the leading captain of the defense last year and had eight tackles in their opener.

Texas Tech can score points, that has been established over the years. However, the secondary needs to get enough stops to help the offense keep humming along.

For the Longhorns, it’s winning in the trenches. Texas had a pretty good day getting to the quarterback with eight sacks against UTEP. However, Texas Tech’s offensive line is much better than UTEP’s.

The offensive line kept Ehlinger up right for the majority, but couldn’t  quite open up holes for the Longhorn running backs. Facing off against guys like Jeffries and defensive tackle Jaylon Hutchings will be a tall task for the Horns.

Prediction

I don’t think Texas Tech is very good in some areas, and in others, they have youth at key positions, like receiver, apart from TJ Vasher, and offensive line.

This will be a relatively close game by around halftime, but Texas pulls away rather late and establishes a ground game to slow down the pace.

Texas is not well known for controlling the clock, but with the personnel they have, they have the capability to do so at times.

For Texas Tech, they are going to need some big time plays on offense and key turnovers on defense. Whether they can do that effectively enough, is the ultimate question though. I don’t think they do and Texas starts the season 2-0.

Final Score: No. 8 Texas 42, Texas Tech 24