Texas Tech didn’t just beat Houston on Friday night. It survived it.
No. 13 Texas Tech escaped with a 28-26 win after No.
22 Houston stormed back and came within inches of forcing overtime on a two-point conversion try that turned into the night’s defining moment. Conner Weigman got pressured, drifted left and lunged toward the goal line before being ruled short.
Replay backed up the call, and the Red Raiders finally exhaled.
“It was kind of like a movie,” wide receiver Kenny Johnson said. “Like we were just up there, waving towels, just trying to get everybody to hype up. It was so great, the defense came up big for us.”
The finish fit the tension of a strange night in Lubbock. Texas Tech and Houston were playing a Friday game that both coaches had openly opposed, with Joey McGuire and Willie Fritz wearing hats honoring the Texas High School Coaches Association. That alone made the setting feel a little off, especially with the 90-degree heat and a packed stadium full of fans who had made the long trip anyway.
“This is just what we do,” one alumnus told me after driving eight hours from Houston. “We show up for the Red Raiders.”
For a while, Texas Tech looked like it might make this one easy. It did not.
The first half was messy, and Houston kept finding ways to hang around. Makhi Hughes, who was on the sideline during Texas Tech’s 23-0 loss to Oregon in the College Football Playoff, opened the game by powering Houston into field goal range.
He finished with 99 all-purpose yards.
Then Weigman flipped the pressure back on Texas Tech, turning a Red Raiders turnover into a touchdown that stretched the Cougars’ lead to 10.
Texas Tech’s own plan to start the game with Tommy Castellanos on the field for the first two snaps and attack downfield backfired immediately. McGuire said after the game the idea was to force Houston to defend the entire field, but Castellanos’ throwaway was intercepted, and the stadium went quiet.
Will Hammond settled the noise after that. McGuire made it clear again that Hammond is the program’s only starter, and the quarterback answered with his best performance yet. After a cautious start to the season, he attacked deeper against Houston, averaging an 11.2 average depth of target while completing 63% of his passes and earning a career-high 89.7 PFF passing grade.
“The best thing about this team is everyone's always ready,” Hammond said. “We always have that next man up mentality.
And whether I got the first play or not, we won the game. That's all that matters.”
Hammond’s night changed on a 28-yard throw to Johnson at the end of the first quarter. Four plays later, he hit Johnson again, this time on a scissors route in the corner of the end zone. Later, he connected on back-to-back 20-yard throws to Terrance Carter and Coy Eakin, setting up another touchdown run.
Houston answered with an explosive touchdown pass from Weigman, but Texas Tech responded again, this time with a rushing drive from J’Koby Williams that put the Red Raiders ahead for good.
“A lot of it is just taking a deep breath,” McGuire said. “Some of it is just that you're so geeked up and you have guys trying to do too much.
I just need you to do your job for four to seconds. I thought the guys responded to that.”
The defense, though, is still the part of this team that has room to grow. Texas Tech’s unit was a national force last season, allowing just 3.9 yards per play, but four starters are gone to the top 70 picks of the NFL Draft and the new group has had to learn fast. Houston ran for 176 yards, far more than the Red Raiders allowed in any game last season, and Weigman threw for 282 yards and three touchdowns.
“There’s definitely pressure,” defensive end Adam Trick said, “but it’s also the standard of excellence here.”
Still, the defense made the plays that mattered most. In the second half, Houston had only four drives and was forced to punt twice.
Late in the third quarter, after the Cougars moved into the red zone, Texas Tech got a tackle for loss on Hughes and then a false start pushed Houston out of four-down territory and into a field goal attempt. Those points turned out to matter.
“I think people from the outside think that just because we had an awesome season last year means we're supposed to do the same,” defensive tackle A.J. Holmes said.
“But we're still working and getting better every day. Just because it's started off a little rocky doesn't mean it'll end that way.
As you can see, we're still getting better.”
McGuire said before the season he believed this defense could be better than last year’s record-setting group, and he said he wanted a few more weeks before deciding whether that still felt true, especially with star transfer defensive end Trey White back at 100%.
For now, the headline is simple: Texas Tech found a way. It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t clean, but it counted all the same.
Last season, the Red Raiders went six games before playing one decided by fewer than 20 points. They were 0-1 in one-score games, with that lone regular-season loss coming against Arizona State quarterbacked by a then-backup Hammond. This time, Texas Tech came through in the tightest possible moment.
“This is a different team,” McGuire said. “You go from January to mid-June with one team and then you go through camp with a quarterback that's just getting his feet underneath him.
It hasn't looked pretty, man. But we're continually finding a way.
“We beat a ranked opponent tonight. That's huge.”
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