CFB Week 4 : #22 Texas Longhorns @ Texas Tech Red Raiders Preview & Predictions #hookem

Julian Martinez: [00:00:12] Well, it's time to talk about my 22nd ranked Longhorns. Surprisingly dropped this week despite a win. It was a win against UTSA. The Roadrunners meet me by their gon got blown out by 21 so that felt good but didn't feel good with that first half though, a little bit of lethargic start by the Longhorns. I wasn't pressed terribly by their defense. They are currently going to be six and a half point favorites on the road going to Lubbock, tortillas flying everywhere, I'm sure. I'm excited for this one, but also because you have to think they turned it right on me. Mean a game like the UTSA game as slow as they started, I was impressed by them because a team like that is usually those trap games, those letdown games that the Longhorns have been snake bitten by before and they didn't let it happen. Against a while, coach Jeff Frazier led Roadrunners team, Texas Tech, Texas. What do you think? [00:01:00][48.1]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:01:01] Well, at the start of the season, remember when we did our our preseason preview of the Longhorns, where we talked about how last year they finished eighth in the Big 12. And in order to climb up the rankings, they would have to beat all the seven teams that were ahead of them because they'll beat the shit out of Kansas, they'll beat the shit out of West Virginia. Those teams aren't any good. [00:01:18][17.3]
Julian Martinez: [00:01:19] But this is pump the brakes. They're just Kansas's starting three, you know, just throw it out there. Okay, listen, listen. I don't want to put that evil on myself either. But, you know, all due respect, Lance Leopold's doing something up there. [00:01:32][12.3]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:01:32] He's doing something. I still think they're only better than West Virginia in the Big 12. That's my my thoughts. I could be incorrect, but I believe in Kansas. [00:01:40][7.7]
Julian Martinez: [00:01:40] I they we're all be better than my alma mater, New Mexico State, as of a few years ago. So that kind of tells you how much of an improvement they have had. But again, you are correct. Texas, Texas, that's where our focus is. [00:01:53][13.0]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:01:55] Texas Tech. I would regard as the eighth best team in the Big 12. Therefore, this is the beginning of the climb for Texas. Back to the rankings of the Big 12, if you want to think of it this way, a win this week is the jump from eighth to seventh, and then the win next week is seven to sixth. Little by little, this is how Texas continues their climb to relevancy. And of course, we expect Texas to win this game. Of course, we expect Texas to beat Kansas State. We probably expect Texas to be Iowa State, even though Iowa State is three and zero and going to make the bowl game and be pretty good this year like we expect them to win these games. Everything on paper says they're better. The game against Alabama says that the program's ahead of schedule. Of course that's the case. It's just now that little by little they're going to have to happen and avoid the disappointments that sometimes happen to programs. It doesn't usually happen in the programs like Texas when we're talking about the resource advantage that they have against schools like Texas Tech. So they should win this game in year two. It's a game that usually when Texas loses to Texas Tech, someone's getting fired. It doesn't have to be the head coach, but someone's getting fired within the athletic department. So Texas expects to win. They should win. But this is like if they win this week, they're now seventh in the Big 12 and then next week they'll be sixth and then fifth. And then they'll get to the Oklahoma game and it'll be another measuring stick. Okay. [00:03:12][77.9]
Julian Martinez: [00:03:13] Okay. I see where you're measuring this is you're looking at it almost like a Mortal Kombat combat tower where you're just kind of working your way up. You're beating everyone up until you get to Shao Kahn. Okay. I respect that. I respect what you're saying here. When I look at this matchup, I think the bigger story for the Longhorns going into this game is going to be the health of their quarterback. Yes. DeMarvion Overshown him not being on the defense. That hurts. But Ewers not being in there. You can kind of tell they played it more conservative against UTSA. They took a couple shots with Hudson Guard, but he couldn't connect, mostly because Hudson cards just not as talented as yours. And I appreciate any backup quarterback that could go in, give a confident effort against the Alabama defense and Nick Saban led defense. But the UTSA game, I don't think the Hudson card was doing anything that really made the Longhorns better, probably made them worse, to be honest. So one thing that took away from Sark on Monday practice, they all practice today, which is positive. Talking about his quarterback room, they didn't all practice last week. If you listen to the broadcast, they were talking about Glenn Ewers and also saying that he was seeing the ball around. He looked like he was ready to go. So what I think is going to happen, I don't think he's going to play this week. I think the Longhorns are going to quite conservatively say, I think we could beat Texas Tech on the road with Hudson Card. I think we can do that. Maybe they do a slow ramp up and have Ewers out there against West Virginia because you're really getting ready for the Oklahoma game that's around the corner for you. That's what your season is going to be made or broken on. As much as you know, you don't want to lose these games because those will feel awful. If you beat Oklahoma, you had that almost game against Alabama. You may finish the season with eight wins. You're feeling pretty good about how the season went overall. I mentioned it in the preseason, I think you beat Oklahoma. That's the win that Sark needs on his resume. So I don't think that you should rescuers being out there against Texas Tech because you should be able to beat Texas Tech without. Donovan Smith. So the quarterback for the Texas Tech Red Raiders, he has the 110th quarterback rating in the nation. That kind of tells you the level of quarterback play. You're going to see the defense if they could play the second half defense that they had against UTSA as opposed to the first half effort that wasn't really there. If they could play the effort that they had against Alabama, they should be able to smother Smith. They should be able to smother this Red Raiders offense even without overselling. So I like their ability to do that. They have some guys on the defensive line that I think can really like overpower that offensive line and just make it difficult for the Red Raiders all around. I'd like them to win this game six and a half point spread. I understand it just because when you're again, talk about a backup quarterback, you're talking about these shootout games because I think the Red Raiders might be able to just get into a shootout. That's that's always within the range of possibilities. Backdoor covers, I think, always are within the range of possibilities in these big 12 games. I'm just hoping that the Longhorns bring that same level of defense and car just to kind of get them by for another week. That's that's why I'm hoping for. [00:06:08][174.9]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:06:08] The spread reflects that right. Like even without your defensive captain in your five star quarterback and your running back playing, but playing with like 80% or 85% or whatever Bijan Robinson's at right now, even with that, they're still a seven point favorite. And part of that is Texas Tech actually doesn't have a great offense this year. And the fact that I bet you you and I both can't name the head coach at Texas Tech if we were given infinite guesses at this point. I know he comes from Baylor. I know he comes from Baylor, but I don't know his name. I think it starts with an S. I could be wrong about that. But anyways, like Texas Tech is a team they should beat. I obviously I'm not invested in the rivalry and like the Red River and the rah rah of Texas like you are in Austin. So like the way I look at it is they were going to lose to Alabama. Now, obviously, they almost beat Alabama and it was shocking. But like going into the year, I assumed they were going to lose to Alabama and there would be three games that would be underdogs in this year Oklahoma, Baylor and Oklahoma State. And if you won one of those games and avoided any embarrassing losses, it would be a huge success for Texas. So like, yes, Oklahoma is the game that would define the season, perhaps because it's the rivalry. I look at it as like if they win one of the games against Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Baylor and like don't lose at home to West Virginia, then this will be a successful season for Texas and like something you could build on and perhaps in your last year in the Big 12, go on to potentially finish second place in the conference or maybe win the Big 12 title or whatever you want to set the expectation at four years down the road. But yeah, Texas Tech should be a game. They win and let's not get it wrong. Steve Sarkisian offense is simple. Like I remember I was watching the playoff game for Bama two years ago and basically called the plays that Sark ran for the first seven plays in my living room. But like they will run the simple offensive Hudson card, they will probably win the game. And if they don't or if they play close, we can evaluate like how we got to that point. Were there turnovers? You kind of humbles. [00:08:07][118.4]
Julian Martinez: [00:08:07] Whatever would happen a pass and any loss you have with Hudson Card as the quarterback, I think. [00:08:11][3.5]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:08:11] Okay, but if they go to a game, then. [00:08:13][2.1]
Julian Martinez: [00:08:14] It's a feel good pass. Yeah. No, no. Well, that's, you know, banking on Ewers missing significant time this season, I would say. Yeah, that's one thing. But looking. [00:08:22][8.4]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:08:22] At their. [00:08:22][0.1]
Julian Martinez: [00:08:23] Cap and for that. [00:08:23][0.5]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:08:24] You look at their full schedule breakdown, it's like they have a Mortal Kombat ladder game and then a measuring stick game. So it's like, I mean, they're going to beat West Virginia at home, they're going to destroy West Virginia, but like Texas Tech, then Oklahoma, then Iowa State, then Oklahoma State, then Kansas State, then Baylor. It's like they get one game to move up the ladder and then one game to kind of measure where they stand against the three programs that Texas hopes to one day reach with Steve Sarkisian, even though they were already there with Tom Herman, but they just didn't like Tom Herman. So they just tore it down and started all over again. [00:08:58][34.1]
Julian Martinez: [00:08:58] Yep. Hopefully like Sark. More just to read off Joey Maguire, because Joey Maguire is the head coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. His head coaching resume or his coaching resume, he was a high school football coach from 1995 all the way up until 2016. Cedar Hill is where he coached. Then he became the Baylor tight end coach, 2017, 2018, and he was there all the way up until 2021 when he took the head coaching job at Texas Tech. Joe Maguire Let's not get Jerry Maguire. Don't show me the money. Come, let's win this game three and one on the road. All right. From Juju, from Kyle. Stay safe, happy and healthy. You like the channels, subscribe, comment, all that stuff. And we will see you next time. [00:08:58][0.0]
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