Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire covers every door in the Womble Football Center with a laminated piece of paper with the week’s opponent and the typed numbers “1-0” below in bold.
He preaches to his players that each week is the biggest week of the season for No. 6 Texas Tech.
The Red Raiders defeated UCF 48-9 on Saturday and are a win away from clinching the outright Big 12 regular season title and their first appearance in the conference championship in program history.
A bye week stands in between Saturday’s result and Texas Tech’s season finale against West Virginia on Nov. 29, but McGuire isn’t taking any additional precautions to keep his team focused.
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He knows they understand.
“If we win, we’re in Dallas,” McGuire said. “There’s not going to be anything that I need to tell these dudes other than, ‘Guys, no matter what anybody else does, if we win in two weeks, we’re in Dallas.”
The Red Raiders’ roster is dominated by juniors and seniors who have experienced shortcomings before, whether that be at Texas Tech or somewhere else. Each week, players have spoken about the reality of what the Red Raiders have accomplished in 2025, and what they could still achieve.
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Records have been broken, losing streaks have been snapped and the team has put its best record together since its historic 2008 season. Now, one final result will determine if Texas Tech makes its first trip to Arlington.
“Last week was the biggest game of the year. This week was just as big of a game of the year, and next week, additionally, is going to be just as big,” Texas Tech senior safety Cole Wisniewski said. “Everything that we’ve built for, everything that we’ve worked for over the last 11 months, is on the line.”
Many programs around the country utilizes a similar mantra. For Texas Tech, it’s finally clicked.
The Red Raiders’ one loss of the season came against Arizona State on Oct. 18, when quarterback Sam Leavitt and the Sun Devils pulled off a game-winning two-minute drill.
For a team in its first year of true College Football Playoff contention, the response in the following week would determine the rest of the season.
McGuire allows his players 24 hours to mourn or celebrate Saturday’s result. After that, it’s back to work. So, when the Red Raiders showed up for practice the next week, it was a test of who bought back in to going 1-0.
“That Tuesday practice might have been the most passionate practice that we’ve ever had up to that point, because the guys just love being by each other,” Wisniewski said.
The Red Raiders shut out a Big 12 opponent for the first time since 2005 in the following week. Then, beat Kansas State for the first time in Manhattan, Kansas, since 2008. Then, routed No. 7 BYU with College GameDay in attendance. And finally, beat UCF by the largest margin the Knights have lost by since joining the conference.
And still, they credit the mantra of going 1-0.
“Our rule is proof of this entire year,” Texas Tech senior linebacker Jacob Rodriguez said. “We know that we can be this great team, but we have so much more to prove, and we have so much more to give.”
Texas Tech has a handful of routes that would put it in the Big 12 Championship, but the Red Raiders are focused on the most simple one: Win and they’re in.
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