Halloween weekend brings a matchup with high stakes to Lubbock as the Texas Tech Red Raiders prepare to host the Arizona Wildcats. Both programs enter at 6-1, with their College Football Playoff hopes and Big 12 championship aspirations hanging in the balance. But beyond the rankings and postseason implications, there are some unsettling questions surrounding this contest. Here are three of the spookiest storylines heading into Saturday’s showdown.<\/p>\n
Ranked and ready for war<\/p>\n
Both teams enter this game with a 6-1 record, are ranked, and with the way things are shaping up around the country, either side can ill-afford a second loss on their resume if they wish to make the College Football Playoffs. With Utah and BYU also having spectacular seasons, a spot in the Big 12 title game could be on the line as well. <\/p>\n
Everything is on the line in Lubbock.<\/p>\n
The quarterback fiasco<\/p>\n
After taking responsibility for not playing Tommy Castellanos in the loss to Cincinnati, Joey McGuire and company have promised to get him more involved this week. What that looks like remains to be seen, but Castellanos’ mixed bag of decent play and horrific mistakes doesn’t call for confidence, especially if he’s considered the upgrade over Will Hammond.<\/p>\n
Long story short, Texas Tech win in spite of their quarterback play, not because of it, and that is a problem.<\/p>\n
Cody Campbell’s concerns<\/p>\n
The man with his name on the field made his opinion known last week following Texas Tech’s loss to Cincinnati, stating the program should not be losing games like that. A media storm ensued, and what came out of it was Campbell saying it was more likely McGuire gets extended at the end of the season before being let go.<\/p>\n
If Tech loses, does Campbell keep his word? If Tech wins, does he hand McGuire a check on the spot? Who knows, but this feels like BYU last year. McGuire responded with an emphatic win that time; can he pull it off again?<\/p>\n
Contact\/Follow us @RedRaidersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas Tech news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Brock on X @BrockVierra<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on Red Raiders Wire: Three spooky storylines for Texas Tech and Arizona<\/p>\n
Reporting by Brock Vierra, Red Raiders Wire \/ Red Raiders Wire<\/p>\n
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
Copyright Reuters or USA Today via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
This story was originally published October 31, 2026 at 9:36 AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Halloween weekend brings a matchup with high stakes to Lubbock as the Texas Tech Red Raiders prepare to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169],"class_list":["post-482481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482481","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=482481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}