LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Two days after suffering their first defeat of the season, the No. 13 Texas Tech Red Raiders (6-1, 3-1 Big 12) are now turning their attention to Saturday\u2019s Top 25 matchup against the No. 22 Arizona Wildcats (6-1, 3-1) in Lubbock. <\/p>\n
With five games remaining in the regular season, Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire says his players understand the importance of every game as they look to remain in contention for the Big 12 Championship and earn a spot in the College Football Playoff. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve turned this into a five-game season where there\u2019s no room for error,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s going to come down to who can play the best each Saturday. And we\u2019ve got to play much better, especially this week.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Red Raiders will face Arizona\u2019s high-powered passing offense, which averages 310.9 yards per game, ranking ninth nationally and second in the Big 12. The Wildcats offensive coordinator is Seth Doege, who was Texas Tech\u2019s starting quarterback from 2011-12. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he is doing is he has got a quarterback, a fifth-year senior, really extremely talented that he\u2019s got him playing at a really high level. That quarterback drives everything, he\u2019s pretty special, and Seth\u2019s doing a great job,\u201d McGuire said. \u201cThe one thing that he has done is created a true identity on offense to where, they\u2019ve got things that they hang their hat on, and so it\u2019s going to be a real test because that quarterback\u2019s really good.\u201d <\/p>\n
That quarterback is Noah Fifita, who enters Saturday\u2019s game with a passer rating of 174.12. Through seven games, he has completed 167 of 225 passes for 18 touchdowns and four interceptions. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe quarterback\u2019s a playmaker, he can hurt you with his arm, he can hurt you with his legs. They\u2019re one of the top passing offenses in the country, they\u2019re averaging 36 points a game, and he\u2019s got some really nice tools on the perimeter to get the ball to,\u201d said Texas Tech defensive coordinator Shiel Wood. \u201c…The quarterback can extend plays, and when he scrambles, he\u2019s scrambling to throw and he can really push the ball down the field on the move, so it\u2019ll be a great test for us.\u201d <\/p>\n
During Monday\u2019s press conference, McGuire confirmed running back Cameron Dickey practiced Sunday and is expected to return Saturday after suffering an ankle injury at Colorado several weeks ago. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be good to have him back,\u201d McGuire said. \u201cHe\u2019s just another guy that\u2019s been in some big games that\u2019s got a lot of experience and a lot of juice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dickey is among the veteran leaders Texas Tech will lean on during the final month of the regular season. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re going to lean on,\u201d said McGuire. \u201cAnd I mean, Ben Roberts, Sheridan Wilson, Howard Sampson, Trey White, like these old guys, John Curry, I mean they\u2019re embarrassed, they\u2019re (upset), they\u2019re very frustrated by the way you could turn on the tape and see we did not play very well.\u201d <\/p>\n
Texas Tech and Arizona will kick off 11 a.m. Saturday at Galaxy Stadium. <\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Two days after suffering their first defeat of the season, the No. 13 Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6550,2698,9369,315,2880,261,27,29,28,1769,874,415,873],"class_list":["post-477569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-wildcats","tag-arizona-wildcats-football","tag-big-12","tag-big-12-football","tag-college-football","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-tech","tag-texas-tech-football","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","tag-texas-tech-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477569","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=477569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}