Joey McGuire recaps Texas Tech football win at Oklahoma State
The Texas Tech football team used big performances by Tahj Brooks and Behren Morton to win a wild Big 12 game at Oklahoma State
STILLWATER, Okla. — As the Texas Tech football team was going in at halftime Saturday at Oklahoma State, Tech coach Joey McGuire told offensive coordinator Zach Kittley to keep putting pressure on the Cowboys.
The Tech defense looked vulnerable, and defensive tackles De’Braylon Carroll and Quincy Ledet were sidelined with ankle injuries they suffered in the first half. Even with a lead and Doak Walker Award semifinalist Tahj Brooks, this wasn’t going to be the night to grind clock.
“I told Kittley, ‘There’s no backing off. You have got to attack them,’ ” McGuire said. ” ‘You’ve got to do everything you can to attack them, because it’s going to be one of those games that’s going to be back-and-forth.’ And it was, and we were lucky to come out on top.”
Tech beat Oklahoma State 56-48 in the Big 12 game at Boone Pickens Stadium, moving to 7-4 for the season and one game out of the conference lead at 5-3. Behren Morton threw for 404 yards, a career high, and four touchdowns. Brooks carried 28 times for 133 yards and three touchdowns and caught nine passes for 65 yards and a TD.
“Kittley did a great job of getting us in the right plays,” Morton said. “I just tried to give our guys a chance, get the ball to the playmakers and let them do the work.”
A Texas Tech football goal for 2024: Recognize the moment
After the Tech staff reviewed every 2023 game in February, one of McGuire’s goals for 2024 was to, in his words, recognize in the moment what kind of game the Red Raiders were in. He recognized it by halftime Saturday: A shootout.
The two teams almost evenly divided 1,051 yards and 15 touchdowns, 14 by the offenses. They scored five TDs apiece in the second half.
“I felt like the defense, for a lot of the game, played on their heels,” McGuire said, “and we never could get settled. So whenever that happened, we recognized it was going to be a high-scoring game and find a way to win the game.”
It was senior day for Oklahoma State (3-8, 0-8), but rather than go with seventh-year senior Alan Bowman, the Cowboys started freshman Maealiuaki Smith at quarterback.
Morton hit Caleb Douglas and Mason Tharp for a 14-0 lead early, and Tech never trailed. But OSU tied the game at 14, 21, 28, 35 and 42. Brooks’s last TD with 6:12 pushed Tech ahead 49-42. Three plays later, Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez recovered a bad snap in the end zone to make it 56-42.
“We were due for one, and we knew it,” said Rodriguez, who had 13 tackles and an interception with seven seconds left. “We were always searching to take it away. It especially helps our offense, because we weren’t doing that very much this game, but I think when it mattered we were able to get the job done.”
The ‘perfect call
The Cowboys answered Rodriguez’s touchdown with one of their own with 2:35 left, forcing the Red Raiders to keep making plays. Trevon McAlpine blocked the OSU point-after, keeping the lead 56-48. On the next series, Morton ran for a critical 12 yards on third-and-11, enabling Tech to take more time off the clock.
Rather than risk an incomplete pass and clock stoppage, the Red Raiders called quarterback draw into a light box.
“It was perfect; coach Kittley with the great play call,” Morton said. “He said, ‘Just sell like you’re throwing a route, and then just take off and find it.”
McGuire jokingly said, “I’m anxious to see how fast he ran. Probably not very fast. The running joke with Behren right now is he scored a touchdown running 13 miles per hour and he celebrated with Coy (Eakin) on a touchdown running 20 miles per hour.”
Tech’s 56 points were the third-most allowed by Oklahoma State at home in Mike Gundy’s 20 seasons as head coach. Only Oklahoma in two Bedlam rivalry games topped it with 61 points in 2008 and 62 in 2017.
Brooks has topped the 100-yard rushing mark in every game this season. He got it this time with a 40-yard touchdown, taking a direct snap and faking an end-around handoff to Drae McCray. It broke open so well Brooks had time to take a pre-end-zone hand slap from tight end Jalin Conyers running alongside.
“He was telling me, ‘High five, high five, high five,’ ” Brooks said. “I was like, ‘All right, sure. Let’s do it.’ It was a good moment.”
Morton threw seven passes apiece to Eakin for 90 yards and Conyers for 74. Douglas finished with five for 105.
Tech is 6-1 in games decided by eight points or fewer and added another Big 12 road victory to ones earlier at Arizona and Iowa State.
“That means everything,” Morton said. “That was a big culture win for us.”
