{"id":32617,"date":"2025-11-03T02:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T02:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/32617\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T02:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T02:37:07","slug":"undefeated-byu-faces-a-tall-task-against-texas-tech-on-saturday-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/32617\/","title":{"rendered":"Undefeated BYU faces a tall task against Texas Tech on Saturday \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The well-rested BYU Cougars woke up Sunday morning after presumably getting an extra hour of sleep and found themselves alone atop the Big 12 football standings<\/a>, thanks to red-hot rival Utah\u2019s 45-14 crushing of No. 17 Cincinnati<\/a> in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n

The Cougars also found themselves in a familiar situation. Once again they are a considerable underdog heading into their most important game in the 2025 college football season to date.<\/p>\n

Second-place Texas Tech (5-1, 8-1) is around a 10-point favorite over No. 8 BYU (5-0, 8-0) in Saturday\u2019s long-awaited clash at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Special Collector’s Issue: “1984: The Year BYU was Second to None”<\/p>\n

Get an inclusive look inside BYU Football’s 1984 National Championship season.<\/p>\n

The Red Raiders smashed Kansas State 43-20 on the Wildcats\u2019 home field Saturday and have won two straight since that inexplicable 26-22 to Arizona State on October 18 in Tempe, Arizona.<\/p>\n

Late Saturday, before Utah sent Cincinnati packing, ESPN announced that its \u201cCollege GameDay\u201d pregame show will be in Lubbock for the BYU-Texas Tech matchup<\/a>. It\u2019s the first time the program will emanate from Lubbock since November 1, 2008. Under coach Mike Leach, then-No. 6 Tech edged No. 1 Texas that day.<\/p>\n

Kickoff for Saturday\u2019s tilt is set for 10 a.m. MST and the rematch of BYU\u2019s 27-14 win in Provo in 2023 will be televised by ABC.<\/p>\n

Having defeated West Virginia, Arizona, Utah and Iowa State in an October to remember, BYU takes another step up in competition against Texas Tech, the preseason pick to win the Big 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing is easy,\u201d BYU coach Kalani Sitake said last Monday. \u201cWe\u2019re in the Big 12. We don\u2019t know any better, but I do know that nothing is easy when you have a conference that has as much parity as the Big 12 does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitake said all the fanbases in the league \u201care awesome\u201d and every program is well-coached and has great leadership. A sellout crowd in the 60,229-seat stadium in Lubbock is expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a really deep conference, and everywhere we go the fans are amazing. They love their teams,\u201d Sitake said. \u201cThe commissioner Brett Yormark said that himself. \u2026. I love being a part of this conference and that we get to rep the Big 12 everywhere we go. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery BYU sport, not just with football, but all the sports, are benefiting from it. Cougar Nation\u2019s in a really good spot right now, being involved and being partnered up with the Big 12.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is easy to see why now-No. 9 Texas Tech is a heavy favorite, despite BYU being undefeated and having the higher ranking<\/a>. Tech is No. 11 in ESPN\u2019s College Football Power Index (FPI), while BYU is No. 14. The Cougars\u2019 strength of schedule is No. 46, while Tech\u2019s SOS is No. 58.<\/p>\n

BYU has the advantage of an extra week to prepare, which Sitake said last Monday would be utilized well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already had this schedule and everything set from the very beginning. So I\u2019m feeling really good about how we handled the first bye. Now we\u2019re at the second one,\u201d Sitake said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel really good about where we\u2019re going now, and my job as a head coach is to make sure (his players) mindset is right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only four teams in the country remain undefeated \u2014 BYU, Indiana, Ohio State and Texas A&M \u2014 as Navy and Georgia Tech tasted defeat for the first time on Saturday. <\/p>\n

To stay that way when the upcoming weekend is over, BYU will have to pull off one of its biggest upsets in program history.<\/p>\n

After BYU beat Iowa State 41-27 in Ames as a four-point underdog, receiver Chase Roberts said disrespect comes with the territory for the Cougars, who have won 19 of their last 21 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been like that the past two years, and we just go win games,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we do at BYU, (so) they can keep making us underdogs (for all we care).\u201d<\/p>\n

BYU left Ames with several troubling injuries to key players, most notably an upper body injury sustained by top running back LJ Martin. <\/p>\n

Safeties Raider Damuni and Tommy Prassas missed the game entirely, and linebacker Siale Esera was sidelined in the first half. Receiver JoJo Phillips is expected back for the first time since he left the 27-3 win over Stanford on September 6 with a collarbone injury.<\/p>\n

Sitake said last week that reporters will have to wait until Wednesday\u2019s release of availability reports for more information on the injuries and which players have been cleared to play against the Red Raiders.<\/p>\n

Cougars on the air<\/p>\n

No. 8 BYU (5-0, 8-0) at No. 9 Texas Tech (5-1, 8-1)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Saturday, 10 a.m. MST<\/p>\n

\u2022 At Jones AT&T Stadium<\/p>\n

\u2022 Lubbock, Texas<\/p>\n

\u2022 TV: ESPN or ABC<\/p>\n

\u2022 Radio: 102.7 FM\/1160 AM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The well-rested BYU Cougars woke up Sunday morning after presumably getting an extra hour of sleep and found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169,17092],"class_list":["post-32617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-news-feed-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}