Brent Brennan and the No. 22 Arizona Wildcats head into Week 9 facing their toughest remaining matchup of the season, a road trip to Lubbock to take on the No. 13 Texas Tech Red Raiders.
It'll be a spooky Halloween morning for one of these two top 25 programs, with a 9:00 AM MST kickoff on ESPN.
Arizona and Texas Tech boast identical 6-1 overall records, and both are 3-1 in Big 12 play. The Wildcats' lone loss came on the road at No. 15 BYU in Week 2, while the Red Raiders stumbled at Cincinnati in Week 8, losing 37-24 to a Bearcats team that Arizona dominated, 34-7, back in Week 5.
The differing Cincinnati results means very little for Saturday's head-to-head showdown, and Arizona will be getting a pissed off Texas Tech team looking to make a big statement after falling out of the top ten, and making their path to the College Football Playoff that much tougher with five regular season games to go.
Battle in the Trenches
Texas Tech, like many Big 12 teams, does most of its damage on the ground. The Red Raiders average 189.7 rushing yards per game - 36th in FBS - and have 17 rushing touchdowns, which is tied for 23rd.
Three running backs are over 240 rushing yards on the season for Texas Tech, but the leader of the pack by a good margin is J'Koby Williams and his 619 yards and five touchdowns on the ground, producing a healthy 7.2 yards per carry.
The successful ground game for the Red Raiders comes from a dominant frontline, and coach Brennan is well aware this game will be won in the trenches.
“This is going to be a huge line of scrimmage game for us on both sides of the ball," Brennan said at his weekly pregame press conference. "It’s one of those things when you look at it, you know that you have to play consistent football...The front seven for them is really really impressive. Physical, they play incredibly hard. They do a great job.”
Defensive Playmakers
The Red Raiders are second in the entire country with 13 interceptions, and their five pick sixes are tied with Alabama for the most in college football.
That is arguably the biggest factor in Saturday's matchup. Noah Fifita has an outstanding 18-to-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio on the season, having thrown exactly one interception in four of the Wildcats seven games.
“You hope that the experience of Noah Fifita and the battles that he’s been in over time, that those reps help him make great decisions with the football," Brennan said when asked about Texas Tech's high number of interceptions. "We played against lots of really good defenses, and I do think this—besides BYU—I think this is the best defense we played all year. Knowing that, can we find a way to effectively run the football? And then also does that open up opportunities for Noah to distribute the ball to more people across the field? When he’s doing that, then I believe we’re really doing a nice job of you know being effective in moving the football.”
The Seth Doege Homecoming
Arizona offensive coordinator Seth Doege will have a homecoming two weeks in a row. After helping Arizona cruise past Iowa State at UA's homecoming last weekend, Doege now returns to Texas Tech - where he played quarterback from 2008-2012.
Doege, now in his second year as Arizona's offensive coordinator, is from west Texas and had an outstanding senior season with the Red Raiders in 2012, throwing for 4,205 yards and 39 touchdowns before going undrafted and playing briefly in the CFL.
Arizona and Texas Tech are major headliners in a fantastic Week 9 college football slate, drawing the 9:00 AM MST timeslot on Saturday, Oct. 31. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
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