The UCF Knights (4-5, 1-5 Big 12) face their highest-ranked opponent of the season Saturday as they travel to Lubbock to face the #6 Texas Tech Red Raiders (9-1, 6-1 Big 12).
Kickoff is set for Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET and the game will be televised on the Fox broadcast network.
Let’s learn about the Raiders:
Table of Contents
Gameday Info
- Kickoff: Saturday, November 15, 3:30 p.m. ET
- Location: Jones AT&T Stadium, Lubbock, Texas
- TV: FOX — Tim Brando and Devin Gardner
- Spread: Texas Tech -23.5 (DraftKings)
- Weather Forecast: 90°, sunny
Injury Report
As of Thursday night:
UCF
- OUT: QB #14 Cam Fancher, LB #16 TJ Bullard, TE #18 Caden Piening, RB #21 Stacy Gage, OL #52 Carter Miller, OL #77 Keegan Smith
- DOUBTFUL: DB #4 Braeden Marshall
- QUESTIONABLE: DE #9 Nyjalik Kelly, RB #22 Myles Montgomery, LB #38 Jayden McDonald, DE #51 Malachi Lawrence
- PROBABLE: TE #84 Thomas Wadsworth, K/P #97 Mason Denaburg
Texas Tech
- OUT: DL #0 Skyler Gill-Howard, WR #4 T.J. West, WR #17 Leyton Stone, WR #18 Roy Alexander, OL #57 Hunter Zambrano
- PROBABLE: DL #2 Lee Hunter, QB #2 Behren Morton, LB #6 John Curry, LB #10 Jacob Rodriguez
Series
Leader: Texas Tech, 1-0
Last Meeting: 2023 — Texas Tech 24, UCF 23
A blocked extra point was the difference between UCF and the Red Raiders in their only meeting so far.
About the Red Raiders
Record:
9-1, 6-1 Big 12, #6 in the CFP Rankings, #8 in the AP Top 25
Last Week: Beat #7 BYU, 29-7
In the biggest game in Lubbock since Michael Crabtree was around, Tech dismantled BYU with relative ease behind a dominating defense and a competent, though not mind-blowingly explosive, offense. That’s been the story this season for them: They don’t do anything special; they just do everything well, especially on defense.
Techs’ resurgence is the product of a massive infusion of donor cash that has instantly elevated them into a national title contender.
Head Coach: Joey McGuire
McGuire’s story is as Texas as it gets. He coached at the high school level for two decades, most of them at Cedar Hill in the Dallas area, before Matt Rhule poached him over to Baylor in 2017. After five years in Waco (three as associate head coach under both Rhule and Dave Aranda), McGuire came out to Lubbock and has reached a bowl game in each of his four years. But this is his best season yet.
Texas Tech Offense
Key Player: RB #8 Cameron Dickey
Texas Tech has actually had some QB problems this year (particularly when starter Behren Morton was out, which is when they lost to Arizona State), but those have largely been masked by Dickey, the Big 12’s top rusher. The sophomore from Austin has 11 TDs this season and ran for 121 yards on 23 carries last week against BYU.
His best game was against Kansas, when he put up 263 yards and two TDs.
Other Guys to Watch
- #2 QB Behren Morton — 65.7%, 1969 yards, 16 TDs 4 INTs. Fifth year at TTU.
- #5 WR Caleb Douglas — 43 catches, 606 yards, 5 TDs. Former Florida Gator.
Texas Tech Defense
Key Player: LB #10 Jacob Rodriguez
I know you want me to say Lee Hunter, but Rodriguez has been a one-man wrecking crew out there this season. Now in his fourth year at Tech, he’s got 88 total tackles (48 solo), a sack, five passes defensed, seven (!) forced fumbles and three picks.
Lasrt week against BYU (check the film above), he recorded 14 tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery.
Other Guys to Watch
- #14 DB Brice Pollock — 4 INTs (leads team), 4 passes defensed
- #31 LB David Bailey — 11.5 sacks (3rd in FBS)
The More You Know…
- Ex-UCF Knight Lee Hunter has been key to Texas Tech’s stout run defense, with 25 total tackles and 2.5 sacks.
- Tech is top-4 in the nation in both scoring offense and scoring defense. Only Indiana can also say that this season.
- All nine of Texas Tech’s wins have been by 20 points or more, most in the nation.
- QB Behren Morton and LB Jacob Rodriguez were two of only 11 players on the TTU roster who played in the first meeting between these two teams.
- Texas Tech is looking for its first 10-win season since 2008, when the late Mike Leach was the head coach.
- Prior to that season, the last time Texas Tech won 10+ games was in 1976, when their head coach at the time was the eventual UCF Athletic Director, Steve Sloan.
- It is believed that Sloan’s change of UCF’s mascot to add “Golden” to Knights was inspired at least in part by his time at Texas Tech, among the other schools he previously attended or worked at that had color-related nicknames (Alabama, Georgia Tech, Duke and North Texas). Coach Sloan passed away last year.
