Texas Tech survived a wild one against West Virginia on Saturday night, but the Red Raiders paid for it with some damage on offense.
The biggest blow came after the game, when Joey McGuire said Coy Eakin will be out indefinitely after breaking his hand. The senior receiver left in the first quarter after hauling in a 22-yard catch to move the chains, then spent the rest of the night back on the sideline in street clothes.
“We’ll lose Coy for a few weeks,” McGuire said. “He broke his hand tonight.”
That’s a tough hit for an offense that is starting to settle in behind new starting quarterback Thomas Castellanos. Eakin, a Stephenville native, has been one of Tech’s most reliable targets, ranking second on the team with 285 receiving yards and tied for third with 24 catches.
He has built his value on the kind of work that doesn’t always show up in highlight reels but wins drives: third-down conversions, tough grabs in traffic, and the ability to work the middle of the field. Now Texas Tech has to replace that production, at least for the time being.
The next man up is true freshman Chase Campbell. The Frienship High School product has only five catches for 81 yards this season, but he flashed against West Virginia when the Red Raiders needed him.
His biggest moment came late in the second quarter, when he climbed the ladder for a 43-yard jump ball and ripped it away from a defensive back. That catch helped set up a touchdown and pushed Texas Tech to a 41-27 halftime lead.
Campbell arrived with plenty of buzz. A 4-star signee in the 2026 recruiting class, the Wolforth native was ranked by 247Sports.com as the No. 103 overall player and No. 16 wide receiver in the country. He chose Tech over offers from Utah, North Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Tennessee, TCU, Missouri, and others.
Now the freshman is moving from promising depth piece to a much bigger role, and he’ll be asked to produce every week until Eakin is back.
Texas Tech also came out of the game with two other offensive injuries, though McGuire sounded more optimistic there. Running backs Cam Dickey and Quinten Joyner both tweaked ankles, but the coach said neither appeared to be dealing with a major setback.
“Cam, he kinda tweaked that ankle,” McGuire said, “so we feel like he should be OK. We’ll see how he looks tomorrow and Monday. The same way, Q, tweaked his ankle, so we’ll see how he looks.”
With Dickey and Joyner limited, J’Koby Williams carried a heavy load to finish the game. He logged 19 rushing attempts, the third-most he’s had in a college game, and added three catches.
Williams remains Tech’s most dangerous playmaker, but the workload seemed to catch up to him as the night went on. He was electric early, then looked less explosive later as the yards got harder to come by.
If Dickey and Joyner can get back for next week’s trip to Stillwater, Texas Tech will need them. Another shootout could be waiting, and the Red Raiders may need every healthy body they can get.
In Other News...
Texas Tech Survived A Shootout With One Huge Problem Still Looming
Texas Tech got the kind of Big 12 win that can make a team feel like it can survive anything, outlasting West Virginia 53-48 in a game that barely slowed down long enough to breathe. Thomas Castellanos delivered a career night with 464 passing yards and five touchdowns, and Micah Hudson came through with a crucial 26-yard catch late to help set up the finish. For a stretch, it looked like the Red Raiders were going to have to win a track meet by simply keeping pace.
Trey White ultimately provided the deciding play with a safety in the final minutes, but the bigger picture for Texas Tech is less comfortable than the final score suggests. The offense was explosive enough to carry the day, yet the defense spent most of the afternoon in a fight it could not fully control, and that is the kind of problem that tends to linger even after a win. The Red Raiders escaped with a dramatic conference victory, but they also left with a reminder that shootouts are a dangerous way to live. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Tech Suddenly Has A Big 12 Case Fans Can't Ignore
Week 10 brought a fresh round of movement across the Big 12 landscape, and Texas Tech found itself in a spot that is hard to overlook. With Missouri falling to Texas, Nebraska making a coaching change after its offensive struggles, and Oklahoma getting a lift under a new offensive coordinator, the conference picture shifted in ways that matter well beyond one Saturday. The ESPN College Football Power Index also reflected those changes, giving the Red Raiders a clearer sense of where they stand as the regular season tightens.
For Texas Tech, the bigger point is not just the noise around other programs, but what those results can mean in the race ahead. When the teams around you keep shuffling, every ranking bump, every postseason path and every remaining conference result starts to carry a little more weight. The Red Raiders suddenly have a Big 12 case that is difficult for fans to ignore, even if the full picture is still coming into focus. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Still Has A Real Top 10 Case After Rivalry Loss
Saturdays shakeup across the AP Top 25 left the national picture looking a lot different, and it created more room for teams to move than usual. Eight ranked teams lost, including the No. 1 team, which triggered a fifth change at the top of the poll this season and sent voters back to the rankings board to sort out who had earned a bump and who had to slide.
For a Texas Tech audience, the bigger takeaway is how volatile the upper tier has become, with teams like SMU, Oregon and Alabama cashing in on wins while LSU and Ole Miss took hits from losses. BYU is still very much in the conversation for a top-10 spot despite its rivalry setback, and with so many teams around it stumbling, the Cougars place in the next poll could hinge as much on everyone elses results as on their own. [Read more 🡒]