Share
Tweet
Share
Share
ARLINGTON, Texas — For all the money the Texas Tech Red Raiders spent on transfers and NIL, it was a player who bought into head coach Joey McGuire from the start that delivered the play of the game in the Big 12 Championship Game at AT&T Stadium.
Ben Roberts, who committed to Texas Tech before McGuire took over the program, take a bow. The redshirt junior linebacker was the game’s most outstanding player.
“He actually told me I recruited him, and he committed to Texas Tech,” McGuire said. “I was at another school [Baylor], and he said, ‘Hey, coach, I love you, man, but I’m a Red Raider no matter what. So, whether you’re the head coach or not, I’m going to be a Red Raider.’”
Roberts’ interception of BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier with 3:33 left in the third quarter set up a Cameron Dickey touchdown run for the No. 4 Red Raiders (12-1) as they defeated No. 11 BYU (11-2), 34-7 on Saturday.
For Tech fans, it was the end of a long drought. The Red Raiders had never played in a Big 12 Conference title game before Saturday. Texas Tech hadn’t won a conference title since sharing the 1994 Southwest Conference title four ways. The Red Raiders shared another SWC title in 1976 with Houston. Texas Tech hadn’t won a solo title since the 1955 Border Conference title.
It was a big deal. And Roberts — a fourth-year Red Raider from Eaton High School in Haslet, Texas — delivered the Red Raiders from a potentially precarious situation and turned it into the pivotal play of the game.
Tech’s offense had been stymied in the red zone for most of the game. The Red Raiders were up 13-7 with 4:50 left and sitting at BYU’s 14-yard line facing a fourth-and-two. It’s a situation where McGuire likes to go for it. So, his offensive coordinator, Mack Leftwich, dialed up … a trick play? It ended up putting quarterback Behren Morton on a rollout to his right with no option but to throw it toward a well-covered Caleb Douglas.
It felt like a missed opportunity. It felt like a poor play call. It felt like Tech had squandered a chance to make it a two-score game. After all, a field goal would have done it. But BYU got the ball instead.
Three players later, Bachmeier was attempting to hit a receiver in the flat when Roberts knocked the ball out of the air, intercepted it, and returned it to the Cougars’ 11-yard line. It set off a massive celebration. One play later, Dickey rolled into the end zone. A two-point conversion made it a 14-point game.
Eighteen minutes remained in the game, but it felt like it was over. Roberts put the game away. In an era of portable talent, Roberts has never thought of leaving. McGuire is a big reason why, whether he recruited him or not.
“He’s working to grow us as men and as players every day,” Roberts said. “So, there was no reason to leave him. I knew that he was going to do what was best for me.”
Roberts has been a great player for Tech since his redshirt freshman season in 2023. He was the Big 12 defensive freshman of the year that season, along with being named a second-team freshman all-American. He started all 13 games last season and made 83 tackles.
Through 12 games in 2025, he had 69 tackles. Saturday’s pick was the third of his career. He picked off another pass in the fourth quarter. By then, it was BYU’s third turnover.
Roberts now has the most interceptions in a Big 12 Championship game.
“I don’t know if I jumped that high,” Roberts said of his second interception. “I’ve been practicing making that catch with one hand, and it finally paid off.”
This season started with Texas Tech’s unprecedented financial commitment through NIL and the transfer portal. The Red Raiders, led by their biggest booster, Cody Campbell, seized on the overlap between the wild, wild west of the pre-House settlement and the new revenue-share era to lure one of the best transfer classes ever. Many wrote about the money. Few wrote about how the Red Raiders spent it.
Texas Tech knew it had to address its defense. Kliff Kingsbury’s return to his alma mater as head coach in 2013 brought back the Red Raiders’ high-powered offense. But defense remained a source of frustration. Last season, Texas Tech won eight games with one of the worst defenses in FBS. Even a good defense might have gotten the Red Raiders to this day a season early.
So, Texas Tech worked the portal for some of the best defenders it could get. The Red Raiders made a late push to sign top pass rusher David Bailey after he transferred out of Stanford following a coaching change. They loaded up — but with a purpose.
Heartland College Sports asked McGuire in July about the defense. Recognizing the horrible top-line numbers a year ago, he was asked what had to change. He said three things: third down defense, red zone defense, and pass rush, or sacks per game. What’s startling is that all the work Tech did this offseason didn’t turn the Red Raiders into a good defense. It turned them into an elite defense. The side-by-side comparison from 2024 to 2025 makes it clear that the money was well spent.
Category/Year20242025Scoring Defense34.8 ppg (No. 121)11.3 ppg (No. 3)Total Defense460.2 ypg (No. 126)258.9 ypg (No. 6)Rushing Defense152.1 ypg (No. 73)68.9 ypg (No. 1)Passing Defense308.1 ypg (No. 132)190.0 ypg (No. 27)3rd Down Defense38% (No. 57)29.8% (No. 10)Red Zone Defense.877 (No. 104).810 (No. 43)QB Sacks per Game1.62 (No. 99)3.08 (No. 5)
Plus, after Saturday’s win, Texas Tech had a plus-7 turnover margin over BYU in its two meetings. The Cougars committed seven turnovers. The Red Raiders committed none. The Red Raiders held BYU to 10 points, 200 total yards, sacked Bachmeier twice, and held him to 115 passing yards and minus-2 rushing yards. The Cougars scored on their opening drive and never sniffed the end zone again.
Texas Tech has adapted quickly to the NIL, revenue-sharing sharing and transfer portal era of college football, perhaps quicker than any other program in the Big 12 when one accounts for all sports. Purists may not like it, but Saturday’s victory was a validation of that hard work and money spent.
“If we are going to buy a team, why not be the best?” Jacob Rodriguez. Truth. #WreckEm
— Matthew Postins (@PostinsPostcard) December 6, 2025
It also showed there is still room for traditional college football. A three-star recruit from a town outside Fort Worth whose only power conference offer was from Texas Tech, who has logged four years with the Red Raiders, became a Lubbock legend on Saturday. He bought into the vision of a former Texas high school football coach who paid his dues as an assistant coach at Baylor to run a big-time program.
Next stop for both? The College Football Playoff. Texas Tech earned it. McGuire and his boosters built it. Roberts delivered it.
