Texas Tech follows through on crucial part of “Plan to Win” to beat Utah
Texas Tech followed through on a crucial part of head coach Joey McGuire’s “Plan to Win” and it resulted in a 34-10 thumping over Utah. The Red Raiders entered the fourth quarter with a lead and Tech won the fourth quarter, 24-7, to check that box of McGuire’s plan.
“First off, hats off to Utah’s crowd, they were amazing today. Anytime their defense walked onto the field it was so dang loud,” McGuire told Chris Level for Double T 97.3 “I blame myself for the procedure penalties, and we’ll make sure we get those fixed. And I’ll tell you, fourth quarter. That’s one of our goals, to win the fourth quarter.
And we were up and we said, ‘Hey, look, we win this fourth quarter, we win the game.’ There was so many times throughout the game we were just right there to make a big play, where the ball was just here, we were one step away from stepping out of a tackle and making a big run, and we just kept on and kept fighting and just really proud of our guys.”
Winning with Hammond becomes part of Plan to Win
When Behren Morton kept taking hits and was unable to continue, Will Hammond was forced to step into the spotlight. The redshirt freshman delivered on the biggest stage of his young career. Hammond finished 13-16 with 169 yards, two touchdowns and a huge 32-yard rush to set up a touchdown that put Tech back up 20-10.
The offensive operation looked more smooth with Hammond at the helm. It wasn’t in the plan to win for the Red Raiders to take it with their backup quarterback. But Hammond’s composure put him squarely in the driver’s seat Saturday.
“The thing we talk about all the time is standards, and when you have the talent that you have in Will Hammond, we expect him to go out and play like that,” McGuire said. “I am not shocked, whatsoever, that he came out and did that. One, we’ve got a great offensive staff, they have these guys ready to go, and two, he’s a really good football player. He’s one of the best that I’ve ever been around. He’s extremely mature, and the thing about him right now is he knows his role.
When you know your role and you’re ready to step in your role, then nothing surprises you. He’s the backup quarterback right now, and had to go in and win us a game, and he did. He knew his role. There’s a lot of people just in life and everything that they want more than what they’re getting, but it’s just not time yet, and they can’t handle that. And Will Hammond handles it like a pro.”
Wide receivers come in clutch
Tech’s pass-catchers spread the love around. Terrance Carter finished with seven receptions and 49 yards, plus a score. Reggie Virgil was the Red Raiders’ leading yard earner with 72 and a touchdown, too. Caleb Douglas and Coy Eakin made huge receptions in the fourth quarter. The run game took longer to get going and the receiving threats kept Tech’s drives churning.
“Those guys, they had to win their one on ones today,” McGuire said. “They gave us a lot of man coverage, I thought those guys did. We had some other big plays that we just got penalized that got called back. Proud of that. And guess what? Texas Tech, we play defense. I know everybody’s fired up about the touchdown and we got to 34, but we only gave up 10 points today to a really good football team.”
