Texas Tech football fans have waited a long, long time to see Quinten Joyner finally take the field for the Red Raiders.
They weren't disappointed with what they saw when it finally happened.
A little over a year after suffering a torn ACL, which sidelined him for the entirety of the 2025 season, Joyner needed just one touch to find the end zone, taking the handoff from Will Hammond and heading left, reaching paydirt 14 yards later, his first score as a Red Raider.
"I had a few tears before the game," Joyner said. "It's been a whole year since I've been doing it again. It felt good, though. Having fun again."
Joyner finished the game with 43 yards on 10 carries, sharing the load (as expected) with his committee members J'Koby Williams (13 carries, 8
catches for 128 total yards) and Cameron Dickey (14 carries, 2 catches for 56 total yards).
The running game was heavily featured in the Texas Tech offense, registering 39 total rushing attempts compared to just 34 passes on the night. Some fans questioned the conservative nature of the Red Raider attack in Will Hammond's fourth career start but first since his knee injury. Red zone issues aside, head coach Joey McGuire said he would've liked to have had even more rushes on the night.
"I thought that we came out and we scored and then we got impatient," McGuire said. "Those times that we were throwing the football, we needed to hand the football off and get behind the offensive line."
Troubles with the red zone have been a persistent issue for the Red Raiders, something the team hopes to quell by utilizing its three-back setup of Joyner, Williams, and Dickey.
Joyner got the first score of the night while Williams, the most visible presence of the night offensively, got the second, taking the ball from Florida State transfer Thomas Castellanos (his only snap of the game) around the left side for a 5-yard score.
While both rushing scores came on plays outside the tackles, Joyner said the running backs need to get better at pounding the ball inside the hashes.
"Just punishing people, just running with anger," Joyner said of what the running backs can do better. "But I feel like we did great today. We've got a lot to improve and we're gonna do better. We're gonna get better."
Joyner wasn't the only one who made the most of his opportunities.
With projected starter Trey White (knee) and backup LaDamion Guyton (back) out for the opener, the Red Raiders shuffled their outside linebacker rotation, putting Adam Trick at both positions throughout the game. Given the absence of White and Guyton, the talented five-star freshman who's turned heads in camp, it was a wonder who could step up in their absence.
Jamond Mathis answered the call, registering a team-high six tackles and 2.5 sacks, the most he's ever totaled in a single game after spending two years at Southern Illinois and last season at Kent State.
Put into context, David Bailey, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft by the New York Jets, only had one game with more than two sacks last season at Texas Tech. Mathis matched him in one game as a Red Raider.
Mathis said that his preparation throughout the week, and throughout fall camp, put him in position to succeed when his number was called.
"It's awesome," McGuire said. "It's a testament to him. We all know that in this day and age, everybody wants to hear their name called and praised. It's amazing some of the texts that I get in college football from parents (that) I used to get in high school, and now I get them in college.
"But that he wants people's names called, and everything like that is a testament to Jamond that he understands. Man, just go out and do your job. Good things happen. The thing tonight that was awesome is he took advantage of his snaps. ... Whenever you take advantage like that, you just get more snaps."
Mathis said he wasn't worried about stating his case while his teammates were sidelined. It was his turn to do the job, and he did it.
"I feel like they push me," Mathis said. "They push me to be great just like I push them to be great. I feel like it's not really, it's a competition but it's not. It's a brotherhood. We all push each other to be great as they can."
Joyner, meanwhile, is still in the early stages of getting his full form back after the knee injury. Was his return to the field just the beginning? Joyner seems to think so.
"I've gotten better," Joyner said.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Quinten Joyner, Jamond Mathis make most of opportunities for Texas Tech football
