{"id":482869,"date":"2026-11-01T02:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T02:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/482869\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T02:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T02:58:08","slug":"no-13-tech-completes-second-half-comeback-over-no-22-arizona-34-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/482869\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 13 Tech completes second half comeback over No. 22 Arizona, 34-26"},"content":{"rendered":"

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) \u2014 Tommy Castellanos started at quarterback for No. 13 Texas Tech over Will Hammond<\/a>, and the Red Raiders rebounded from their first loss of the season.<\/p>\n

A week after Hammond and the Red Raiders struggled, dual-threat Castellanos threw two touchdown passes and ran for 117 yards with another score in a 34-26 win <\/a>over No. 22 Arizona on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Castellanos ran for an 8-yard touchdown early in the second half to tie the game at 17. The Florida State transfer put the Red Raiders (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) ahead to stay with a 27-yard TD pass to Kenny Johnson<\/a> on a fourth down play that made it 24-23 with 2 1\/2 minutes left in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Coach Joey McGuire<\/a> made the QB change after Hammond and the Red Raiders lost 37-24 at Cincinnati, prompting McGuire to say he was “as frustrated as I’ve ever been in 32 years of coaching.”<\/p>\n

Hammond didn’t get into Saturday’s game as the defending Big 12 champion Red Raiders tied a school record with their 13th consecutive win at home.<\/p>\n

Castellanos, who ran 19 times and was just 11-of-24 passing for 144 yards, led the first opening touchdown drive since the season opener for Texas Tech. He capped the 13-play, 75-yard drive with a 24-yard pass to Terrance Carter Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n

He kept the drive alive with a 7-yard run on fourth-and-2 and converted a pair of third downs, including one with another scramble.<\/p>\n

The start came a day after the latest court ruling preserving the eligibility of Castellanos and 29 other athletes who sued over the issue of whether they should get a fifth season under the NCAA’s new five-for-five model.<\/p>\n

It was actually the second start for Castellanos, but the first one was a change-of-pace decision before Hammond came in. Castellanos threw an interception on his first play in another AP Top 25 matchup at home, a 28-26 victory over Houston. This time, Castellanos was still in the game into the second quarter.<\/p>\n

Castellanos started all 12 games for the Seminoles in what was expected to be his final college season last year. He went undrafted and had a tryout with the Miami Dolphins but was never on the roster. He joined the host of athletes seeking another year of eligibility and signed with Texas Tech just a week before the season opener.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) \u2014 Tommy Castellanos started at quarterback for No. 13 Texas Tech over Will Hammond, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-482869","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\/482869","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=482869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}