LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Following Saturday’s loss to Arizona State, the No. 14 Red Raiders (6-1, 4-0) are now turning their attention to Oklahoma State (1-6, 0-4).
Just two years ago, the Cowboys were a part of the Big 12 Championship game but have since been affected by turnover. The team added more than five dozen newcomers for this season, and long-time head coach Mike Gundy was fired on Sept. 23, replaced by offensive coordinator Doug Meacham, who is taking on the interim role.
“So, I know those guys really well, really good coaches,” said head football coach Joey McGuire. “It’s tough in the world we live in right now. They kind of changed the rules, they were grandfathered in the rules, they had some guys exit, and Cincinnati’s a really good team. They’re undefeated in our conference. They played Cincinnati really well.”
On Saturday, Oklahoma State entered the fourth quarter trailing Cincinnati 28-17, before the Bearcats pulled away for the 49-17 win. In that contest, running back Rodney Fields, Jr. led the Pokes with 163 yards rushing and one touchdown.
The Red Raiders are also studying quarterback Sam Jackson, whose style of play mirrors Jalon Daniels of Kansas and Sam Leavitt of Arizona State- the two QB’s Tech’s defense has faced in the last two weeks.
“The quarterback’s going to be really athletic. He can run around. We played two athletic quarterbacks the last two weeks, at times they’ve hurt us with their feet, so we’re going to have to do a good job with that,” McGuire said, while making it clear that OK State is not to be overlooked. “They’re really multiple on defense, and so are we going to see their four down stuff more than we’re going to see their odd stack stuff? That’s what Clint (Bowen) did whenever he was at Kansas. They at one point led the nation in turnovers whenever he was there.”
Tech’s starting QB Behren Morton was listed available for an ‘emergency role’ against Arizona State, but his playing status for the upcoming is still listed day-to-day.
“I wished he could have played. He wished he could have played, but we’re going to take it day-to-day, to make sure that he’s 100 percent,” said McGuire, who also stressed the need for a healthy QB with other tough conference games approaching in the next few weeks.
If Morton is unavailable, backup Will Hammond will start. In the fourth quarter of last week’s game, Hammond threw for 72 yards and a score, including a 12-yard pass to Reggie Virgil with two minutes left, which gave Tech the 22-19 lead. He also ran for 42 yards and another score less than two minutes before.
When asked about refocusing after a loss, Coach McGuire referred to Ohio State’s four-game title run last year, which was springboarded by a 13-10 loss to rival Michigan there in Colombus, Ohio.
“We’ve got a bunch of guys that really need to focus and bounce back and get some momentum. Grab the momentum back. I will say this, for us- I was appreciative. I thought at different times that we haven’t had the respect throughout the year, but I was appreciative that the AP voters kept us where we were at and showed us some respect that we haven’t played anybody close until we did get beat the other day. And so that keeps us in a spot to where we can climb back in this thing.”
It all gets underway 3 p.m. Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium. Kickoff will have a different look this weekend, since fans are no longer allowed to throw tortillas at kickoff- or at any other point in the game.
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