{"id":427835,"date":"2026-09-06T06:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T06:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/427835\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T06:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T06:38:11","slug":"no-12-texas-tech-tops-acu-in-season-opener-33-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/427835\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 12 Texas Tech tops ACU in season opener, 33-10"},"content":{"rendered":"

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) \u2014 Will Hammond<\/a> threw for 298 yards and a touchdown in his return from last year’s season-ending knee injury and No. 12 Texas Tech beat Abilene Christian 33-10 on Saturday night in the opener for the defending Big 12 champion.<\/p>\n

Hammond made good on coach Joey McGuire<\/a>‘s declarations throughout the summer that his expected starter would be ready opening night, slightly more than 10 months after tearing the ACL in his right knee.<\/p>\n

“I told him before the game, I said, ‘First, be Will Hammond<\/a>, and take a deep breath.'” McGuire said. “You’ve got to imagine how geeked up that kid was to play tonight. To go through everything he’s gone through, his rehab and everything. I thought he did a really good job controlling his emotions.”<\/p>\n

Quinten Joyner<\/a> and J’Koby Williams<\/a> ran for touchdowns in the first quarter, but the Red Raiders didn’t find the end zone again until Hammond’s 64-yard pass to Malcolm Simmons<\/a> in the final 3 minutes.<\/p>\n

After Simmons’ score, Alex Broome returned the kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown for the Wildcats (0-2).<\/p>\n

Stone Harrington<\/a> kicked four field goals for the Red Raiders, who had a school-record 12 victories last season while winning their first Big 12 title. Harrington had a 28-yarder after John Curry’s<\/a> interception on the first play of the second half put Texas Tech on the ACU 13.<\/p>\n

The Takeaway<\/p>\n

Abilene Christian: The Wildcats’ previous visit to Lubbock two years ago was an unexpected thriller, with the Red Raiders surviving 52-51 in overtime. ACU had 506 passing yards that night, but managed just 119 against a transformed Texas Tech defense that was among the best in the country last season.<\/p>\n

Texas Tech: Joyner’s first regular-season touch with the Red Raiders was a 14-run for the first points of the game. He missed all of last season after transferring from Southern California and injuring a knee in the preseason.<\/p>\n

Up Next

\nTexas Tech will travel to Oregon State next Saturday for a 4:30 pm PT kick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) \u2014 Will Hammond threw for 298 yards and a touchdown in his return from last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-427835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427835","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=427835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}