No. 12 Texas Tech visits Oregon State Saturday

No. 12 Texas Tech visits Oregon State Saturday

No. 12 Texas Tech will make its first road trip of the season Saturday when it visits Oregon State for a 6:30 p.m. CT kickoff (4:30 p.m. local) in Corvallis. This will be Texas Tech’s first-ever trip to Reser Stadium in its 102nd year of football, as the Red Raiders’ two previous matchups, both wins, came against the Beavers in Lubbock (1959 and 2025).

The contest will be televised nationally on CBS. The broadcast team of Rich Waltz (play-by-play), Adam Breneman and Brian Kelly (analysts) will have the call from the booth. Reporting from the sideline on Saturday will be Jordan Giorgio.

Texas Tech Sports Network will also broadcast the game across more than 20 affiliates throughout the state of Texas and New Mexico, as Brian Jensen will have the call alongside analyst John Harris and sideline reporter Chris Level. The radio broadcast can also be heard on SiriusXM channel 83, as well as on the Varsity app.

• Will Hammond’s return under center couldn’t have gone better for the Red Raiders against Abilene Christian as the junior completed his first 14 passes en route to setting career highs with 298 passing yards and a 78.8 completion percentage.
• Hammond’s return under center couldn’t have gone better for the Red Raiders against Abilene Christian as the junior completed his first 14 passes en route to setting career highs with 298 passing yards and a 78.8 completion percentage. Hammond found 10 different receivers in the win and relied on a balanced running game that featured the trio of Quinten Joyner, J’Koby Williams and Cameron Dickey, with each receiving at least 10 carries that resulted in 40 or more yards each. Joyner, like Hammond, was making his own return from a season-ending knee injury a year ago.

• The Texas Tech defense picked up right where it left off from the 2025 season, dominating Abilene Christian in the opener while allowing only three points on defense and surrendering just 75 rushing yards and 194 yards of total offense. The Wildcats’ touchdown came from a 98-yard kickoff return in the waning moments of the game.
• It marked Texas Tech’s ninth consecutive victory inside Galaxy Stadium, already one of the nation’s top homefield advantages.
• The Red Raiders have not surrendered more than 18 points over that nine-game home winning streak, the longest such run by a Big 12 team since Texas from 1999-02.

• Texas Tech entered the season ranked No. 12 in both the Associated Press and U.S. LBM coaches polls, matching the second-highest preseason ranking in program history. The Red Raiders are the highest-ranked Big 12 program in both polls as BYU appeared as high as No. 14 overall, while Utah was at No. 21 and Houston was No. 23 entering the season.
• Texas Tech’s preseason ranking in both polls matches where the voters placed the Red Raiders in the Associated Press rankings prior to their memorable 2008 season. Texas Tech’s highest-ever preseason ranking came in 1977 when the Red Raiders, coming off a 10-2 season under Steve Sloan, were No. 8 overall in the Associated Press poll.
• The Red Raiders wrapped the 2025 season at No. 7 overall in both the Associated Press and coaches polls, marking their highest final ranking in school history. Texas Tech moved to as high as No. 4 in the polls a year ago, ultimately earning the Red Raiders their first-ever appearance in the College Football Playoff.

• The Red Raiders will be looking to reverse their previous fortunes in non-conference road games this weekend as Texas Tech will be looking for its first win at an opponent’s home stadium since defeating Houston in 2017. Texas Tech has dropped each of its past four true non-conference road games, falling to Arizona in 2019, N.C. State in 2022, Wyoming in 2023 and Washington State in 2024.
• Texas Tech has lost five of its last six non-conference road games dating back to a 2016 shootout at Arizona State. That stretch does not include non-conference neutral-site contests played at NRG Stadium in Houston against Ole Miss in 2018 and then the University of Houston in 2021. The Red Raiders were 1-1 in those two games, opening the 2018 season with a loss to Ole Miss before returning to Houston to defeat the hometown Cougars in 2021.
• Prior to the Arizona State loss in 2016, the Red Raiders had been fairly successful in non-conference road games, winning eight of their previous nine contests from 2007-15, which included wins over Arkansas (2015), SMU (2013) and Nevada (2008), among others.
• RED RAIDERS MAKE FIRST TRIP TO CORVALLIS
  • Texas Tech and Oregon State will complete their home-and-home series Saturday in Texas Tech’s first-ever trip to Corvallis. The Red Raiders opened the series with a 45-14 rout over Oregon State to close non-conference play a year ago in Lubbock. The two schools agreed to the series in 2018.
  • This marks the third all-time meeting between the Red Raiders and Beavers, as the two teams previously faced each other in Lubbock early in the 1959 season. Kenneth Talkington found the end zone twice on the ground in the second half to help Texas Tech rally for a 15-14 victory in the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
  • Oregon State led 14-0 at halftime before Talkington found the end zone from only 2 yards out in the third quarter and then added the two-point conversion on a pass to Bake Turner. Talkington provided the game-winner with only 43 seconds remaining on the clock, pushing his way through the Oregon State defense from only 1-yard out. He provided the extra points immediately after for the 15-14 victory.
  THE LAST MATCHUP
  • Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton, now with the New England Patriots, threw for 464 yards and four touchdowns, while then-sophomore running back J’Koby Williams had a scoring catch and a run as No. 21 Texas Tech beat Oregon State 45-14 on Sept. 13, 2025, in a weather-delayed game in Lubbock. Play was stopped for 2 1/2 hours just 2 1/2 minutes into the game.
  • Then-sophomore running back Cameron Dickey added a short TD run to help the Red Raiders improve to 3-0 for the first time in coach Joey McGuire’s first four seasons.
  • Oregon State’s Maalik Murphy threw touchdown passes in the waning minutes to Bryce Caufield and Karson Boschma, as the Beavers dropped to 0-3 for the first time since 2011.
  • Morton’s TD passes were 38 yards to then-junior wide receiver Coy Eakin, 61 yards to Caleb Douglas, who is now a Miami Dolphin, 30 yards to Williams and 23 yards to tight end Terrance Carter, who was a junior last season.
  • Tech led 28-0 at halftime, 45-0 through three periods and outgained Oregon State 534 yards to 164 through three periods.
  TEXAS TECH-OREGON STATE CONNECTIONS
  • The trip to Corvallis will not be a new one for Texas Tech senior defensive lineman Jojo Johnson, who joined the Red Raiders this offseason after combining to play in 19 games the past three seasons at Oregon State. Johnson recorded 18 tackles for the Beavers a year ago, including 6.5 for a loss.
  • Texas Tech tight end Jett Carpenter will return to his home state this weekend as he is the lone Oregon native on the Red Raider roster. Carpenter is a native of Medford, Oregon, which is roughly 210 miles south of the Oregon State campus. The seventh-year senior arrived at Texas Tech after spending the rest of his college career on the West Coast with stops at Eastern Washington (2020-24) and Nevada (2025).
  • Oregon State’s first-year head coach will recognize a pair of faces on the Texas Tech sideline in offensive line coach Clay McGuire and Associate A.D. for football administration Antonio Huffman from their time together at Washington State. Shephard was the wide receivers coach under Mike Leach with the Cougars in 2016, his lone season at Washington State before eventually moving to Purdue, Washington, Alabama and then Oregon State for his first head coaching opportunity. McGuire was in the back end of his first stint as Washington State’s offensive line coach (2012-17), while Huffman was the Assistant A.D. for football operations at the time.

Release provided by MATT BURKHOLDER Texas Tech Athletics