We Speak College Football
No. 22 Arizona at No. 13 Texas Tech: The Loser Falls Out of the Big 12 Race in Lubbock
There is no soft way to frame Saturday’s noon kickoff in Lubbock: one of these teams leaves Galaxy Stadium with its season still intact, and the other leaves it all but finished. No. 22 Arizona and No. 13 Texas Tech meet at 12:00 p.m. ET on ESPN, both 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the Big 12, and the loser picks up a second conference loss that effectively ends its run at the Big 12 championship game and the College Football Playoff.
Texas Tech is the team trying to stop a stumble from becoming a slide. The Red Raiders’ perfect start died last Saturday in a 37-24 loss at Cincinnati, which snapped a school-record nine-game conference winning streak. Quarterback Will Hammond has thrown for 1,561 yards with six touchdowns against six interceptions, and Tech has leaned on its ground game — J’Koby Williams has 619 rushing yards and five scores — and a defense that has intercepted 13 passes, with A.J. Holmes Jr. racking up 6.5 sacks off the edge.
Arizona, meanwhile, has not lost since a 28-17 defeat at BYU on Sept. 12. The Wildcats have ripped off five straight wins, capped by last weekend’s 39-3 demolition of Iowa State in which Noah Fifita threw for 308 yards and two touchdowns. Fifita’s season line is the story of Arizona’s rise: 2,064 passing yards, 18 touchdowns, just four interceptions and a 74.2 percent completion rate, plus three rushing scores. His career totals — 91 touchdown passes and 11,247 yards — rank first and second among active FBS quarterbacks. His top target, Isaiah Mizell, has 27 catches for 493 yards and five touchdowns. The Wildcats will be shorthanded in the secondary, with Tre Spivey and Daylen Austin reported out.
The matchup that decides it is Fifita against that Tech secondary. Arizona throws for 310.9 yards per game, ninth in the nation, but no defense left on the schedule hunts the ball like the Red Raiders’. If Fifita protects the football the way he has all season, Arizona’s passing game travels. If Tech’s takeaways show up early, the home crowd takes over.
One more layer: Arizona offensive coordinator Seth Doege threw for 8,636 yards and 69 touchdowns as Texas Tech’s quarterback from 2009-12. He knows exactly how loud that building gets — and his quarterback is playing well enough to quiet it.
Halloween Under the Lights in Ames: No. 24 Oklahoma State’s Air Show Meets a Desperate Iowa State
Battle Line Under the Lights: No. 23 Missouri’s Streak Meets an Arkansas Team With Nothing to Lose
No. 19 SMU Takes the ACC Race on the Road to a Syracuse Team Fresh Off an Overtime Escape
Unbeaten No. 7 UCLA Closes Its Homestand Against a Nevada Defense Built to Bother People
No. 11 Texas Tries to Keep Its Surge Going as Wounded Mississippi State Visits Austin
The Nation’s Best Scoring Defense Hits the Road: 6-1 New Mexico Puts Its Mountain West Lead on the Line at San José State
Army’s Nation-Best Ground Game Meets Memphis’ 509-Yard Offense in an American Title Eliminator
On the Blue Turf, No. 20 Boise State’s Playoff Path Runs Through Texas State’s Track Team
We Speak College Football
Halloween Under the Lights in Ames: No. 24 Oklahoma State’s Air Show Meets a Desperate Iowa State
Iowa State gets its first night game of the season at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday, and the opponent is the Big 12’s most entertaining surprise. No. 24 Oklahoma State (5-2, 3-1 Big 12) visits the Cyclones (3-4, 1-3 Big 12) at 7:00 p.m. ET on FS1, with Halloween in Ames as the backdrop.
Almost nobody saw Oklahoma State coming. The Cowboys lost their opener to Tulsa, and first-year head coach Eric Morris — who brought quarterback Drew Mestemaker and running back Caleb Hawkins with him from North Texas — has gone 5-1 since, the only other loss a three-point game at Houston. Mestemaker has been one of the best quarterbacks in the country: 65.7 percent completions, 2,326 passing yards (second-most in the FBS), 20 touchdowns against six interceptions. Oklahoma State averages 40.0 points and 529.1 yards per game, and just hung 598 yards on Colorado in a 57-24 win that put the Cowboys back in the AP Top 25 after a one-week absence.
Iowa State’s week has been about a decision. After playing two quarterbacks in a 39-3 loss to Arizona, head coach Jimmy Rogers announced Tuesday that Jaylen Raynor will start. Raynor has started every game this season, going 93-of-158 for 1,107 yards, seven touchdowns and four interceptions, with 145 rushing yards and three scores on the ground. The Cyclones need three more wins to reach bowl eligibility, and their path runs through home: their only loss in Ames came against Utah, and their last home game was a 45-42 shootout win over West Virginia.
History gives Iowa State a real argument. The Cyclones won the last two meetings, 20-13 in Stillwater last season and 34-27 in Ames in 2023, though Oklahoma State leads the all-time series 34-22-3. The deciding matchup is Mestemaker against an Iowa State defense allowing 24.1 points per game: if the Cyclones can slow the Cowboys’ tempo and make this a fourth-quarter game, the crowd and the moment give them a shot. If Oklahoma State gets to 40 again, the ranking survives and the Big 12 race keeps its wildest story.
Kickoff: Saturday, October 31, 7:00 p.m. ET. TV: FS1. Venue: Jack Trice Stadium, Ames, Iowa.
Battle Line Under the Lights: No. 23 Missouri’s Streak Meets an Arkansas Team With Nothing to LoseNo. 19 SMU Takes the ACC Race on the Road to a Syracuse Team Fresh Off an Overtime EscapeUnbeaten No. 7 UCLA Closes Its Homestand Against a Nevada Defense Built to Bother PeopleNo. 11 Texas Tries to Keep Its Surge Going as Wounded Mississippi State Visits AustinThe Nation’s Best Scoring Defense Hits the Road: 6-1 New Mexico Puts Its Mountain West Lead on the Line at San José StateArmy’s Nation-Best Ground Game Meets Memphis’ 509-Yard Offense in an American Title EliminatorOn the Blue Turf, No. 20 Boise State’s Playoff Path Runs Through Texas State’s Track Team
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