An inaugural Big 12 conference game will see ASU make the trek to Texas for the second straight week to face Texas Tech. The Red Raiders have been inconsistent so far, but what challenges and opportunities do they present? Here’s our examination of the Sun Devils’ upcoming opponent.

Texas Tech Offense

In one of the most recent meetings between Arizona State and Texas Tech, the Red Raiders were guided at quarterback by a guy who has gone on to a pretty decent professional career in Patrick Mahomes.

Though the Red Raiders don’t have nearly as high profile of a quarterback as they did in those days, Behren Morton is putting up Mahomes-like statistics through the first three games of the season.

An Honorable Mention All-Big 12 selection last year, Morton came to Texas Tech in 2021 and through 21 games with 12 starts from 2021-23, he threw for 2,874 yards with 22 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, while rushing for 97 net yards with six scores.

This season appears to be a breakout year for Morton, as he ranks sixth nationally averaging 324.67 passing yards per game and has an outstanding 10-to-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio on the year.

Though Morton has had quite the start to his 2024 season, the clear-cut headliner of the Red Raider offense – and team as a whole – is star running back Tahj Brooks.

The only First-Team All-Big 12 Conference selection on offense or defense for Texas Tech last year, Brooks could become Texas Tech’s all-time leading rusher as he has 3,314 career rushing yards in 47 games with 30 touchdowns along with 77 career catches for 363 yards with a score.

This year, Brooks missed the Washington State game but has a pair of 100-yard outings as he’s totaled 262 rushing yards on 44 carries with two touchdowns along with three catches for 14 yards.

The 230-pounder carried 27 times for 153 yards with a touchdown in the opener against Abilene Christian and had 109 yards with a score on 17 carries last week versus North Texas.

Behind Brooks, true freshman Cameron Dickey is listed as the second-string running back. During the early portion of his college career, he had 18 carries for 105 yards and a touchdown.

At wide receiver, the projected starters are former Washington State and Fresno State receiver Josh Kelly, Caleb Douglas, Drae McCray and Coy Eakin.

Kelly, who caught 61 passes for 923 yards and eight touchdowns WSU last year, leads Texas Tech with 21 catches for 287 yards with two touchdown receptions.

Eakin ranks second on the team with 200 receiving yards on 11 catches, with a team-high three touchdown receptions. Douglas has ten receptions for 137 yards with one sore on the year, while McCray has five catches for 30 yards.

Another name to keep in mind at wide receiver is true freshman Micah Hudson, Texas Tech’s first five-star high school signee who was the top player in the state of Texas and the No. 9 overall recruit of the 2024 class.

Hudson has had a fairly quiet start to his college career with four receptions for 47 yards on the year so far, but it would be definitively on-brand for an opponent of ASU’s to have a breakout career day against the Sun Devils.

At tight end, a very familiar name will take the field for the Red Raiders on Saturday in Jalin Conyers, who, of course, spent the 2021-23 seasons at Arizona State.

Though he hasn’t started any of the first three games for Texas Tech, he’s tied for second on the team with 11 receptions and two touchdown catches and ranks fourth on the team with 105 receiving yards.

Conyers opened with five catches for 63 yards and a touchdown against FCS opponent Abilene Christina, then had two catches for six yards against Washington State before registering four receptions for 36 yards and a touchdown against North Texas last weekend.

Elsewhere at tight end, the hulking 6-foot-9 Mason Tharp has started all three games and has two catches for eight yards, while Johncarlos Miller II has four receptions for 82 yards with two touchdowns.

The Red Raider offensive line figures to consist of either Dalton Merryman or Sterling Porcher at left tackle, Caleb Rogers at left guard, Sheridan Wilson at center, Davion Carter at right guard and Ty Buchanan at right tackle.

So far in 2024, only Wilson has started all three games at the same position, while Rogers has one start at right tackle, one at right guard and one at left guard.

Montgomery came to Tech last year from the JUCO level but missed the entire 2023 season due to injury. Porcher began at the JUCO level in 2020-21 and then spent 2022-23 at Middle Tennessee State before transferring to Texas Tech this past offseason. He started 25 games across his two seasons at MTSU.

Rogers, an Honorable Mention All-Big 12 pick in 2023, has been with the program since 2020 and started all 39 games of the 2021-23 seasons along with three starts in 2020, giving him 42 to enter the 2024 season.

Wilson is in his third year with Texas The and played in two games across the 2022-23 seasons, while Buchanan came to Lubbock in 2022 after spending the previous season at USC. He registered two starts across the 2022-23 seasons for the Red Raiders.

Texas Tech Offense Summary

Statistically, Texas Tech is among the nation’s most prominent offenses. The Red Raiders rank 14th nationally in scoring offense (44.7), fourth in passing offense (358.3), and ninth in total offense (538.7).

The clear heart and soul of the Texas Tech offense is Brooks, one of the nation’s most prominent runners and an All-America candidate.

That said, the Red Raiders are far from a one-dimensional team as their wide receivers and tight ends are frequently featured in the pass game, orchestrated by quarterback Behren Morton.

To have significant success on Saturday, ASU will need to prevent Brooks from having an overwhelming day—he’s a player who is very difficult to keep under 100 yards, but the Sun Devils will need to make sure he doesn’t take control of the game. Arizona State also needs to rattle Morton and continue the early trend ASU has shown of forcing game-shifting turnovers.

Texas Tech Defense

Up front, E’Maurion Banks is likely to be joined in the starting lineup by either Quincy Ledet, Jr., De’Braylon Carroll, or James Hansen on the defensive line.

Banks has been in the Texas Tech program since 2021, while Ledet spent 2020-22 at Louisiana-Monroe before transferring to the Red Raider program prior to last season.

The most productive Red Raider defensive lineman through the season’s first three games, Banks has 11 tackles, including a team-high 3.0 for loss. Ledet has seven tackles with a quarterback hurry so far this season.

Carroll is a grad transfer in his final year after spending the 2019-23 seasons at Rice, as is Hansen, who began at the JUCO level, then spent 2020-21 at Utah State and 2022-23 at Nevada.

So far in 2024, Carroll has one tackle, a quarterback hurry, and a fumble recovery, while Hansen has appeared in all three games but has not registered any statistics.

Amier Washington and either Harvey Dyson III or Isaac Smith are the top options at linebacker outside, with Jacob Rodriguez at Will and Ben Roberts at Mike.

Roberts, the Co-Defensive Freshman of the Year in the Big 12 Conference last year as a redshirt freshman, ranks second on the team so far this year with 17 tackles, including 2.0 for loss, along with two forced fumbles.

Rodriguez, who began his career at Virginia before transferring to Tech prior to the 2022 season, leads Tech with 21 tackles through three games, including 2.0 for loss with one pass breakup, one quarterback hurry, and one forced fumble.

Washington is a redshirt freshman in his second year with Texas Tech, while Dyson has been in the Red Raider program since 2022. Smith has been with Texas Tech since 2021 but missed all of last year due to injury.

Smith has 11 tackles, including 1.5 for loss with a sack, Dyson has two tackles, including one for loss with two quarterback hurries, and Washington has a quarterback hurry but no tackles through three games.

In the secondary, cornerbacks Maurion Horn and Bralyn Lux are slated to be joined in the starting lineup by free safety Chapman Lewis, strong safety C.J. Baskerville and either A.J. McCarty or Brenden Jordan at the team’s “Star” position.

Horn is in his third year with Texas Tech, while Lux spent the 2019-22 seasons at Fresno State before transferring to Lubbock.

Lewis is a true sophomore in his second season with the Red Raiders, while Baskerville spent the 2021-22 seasons at San Diego State before transferring to Texas Tech. McCarty spent the 2020-22 seasons at Baylor before transferring to Tech, while Jordan is a true sophomore in his second year playing for the Red Raiders.

Baskerville leads all Texas Tech defensive backs this year with 16 tackles, one of which came for loss. Horn has 12 tackles, including one for loss with a pass breakup and one quarterback hurry, while Lewis has eight tackles, a team-high two interceptions, and a pass breakup.

McCarty has eight tackles, including one for loss with a pass breakup; Jordan has five tackles, and Lux has three tackles with an interception this year.

Texas Tech Defense Summary

As statistically impressive as the Texas Tech offense is – especially with Tahj Brooks in the lineup – the defense is equally concerning, at least from the Red Raider perspective.

Out of 133 FBS teams, Texas Tech ranks 123rd in total defense (461.3), 122nd in scoring defense (36.33), and 107th in rushing defense (181.7). Only Georgia Southern (10) and Western Michigan (11) have allowed more than the nine rushing touchdowns the Red Raiders have yielded through three games, and only Ball State and UCF (one each) have fewer team sacks than the two generated by Tech so far.

Operating out of a 3-3-5 alignment, the Red Raiders have done an above-average job of forcing turnovers. They’re within the nation’s top 50 with five forced turnovers so far.

In a game that could be a Wild West shootout, ASU should have ample opportunities to move the ball and score points, and they might need every bit of it against a potent Tech offense.

Texas Tech Special Teams

As a team, Texas Tech is a perfect 5-for-5 on field goal attempts, with Gino Garcia connecting on all four of his tries with a long of 39 and Resse Burkhardt making a 41-yard attempt.

At punter, Jack Burgess averages 44.38 yards on eight punts with a long of 59 yards.

Drae McCray averages 55.0 yards on his three kickoff returns with a long of 74 yards, though that did not result in a touchdown. Josh Kelly averages 3.5 yards on his four punt returns so far in 2024.

Overall Summary

Programmatically, Texas Tech and Arizona State share some similarities in that they’re two teams that have had some blips of high-tier performance but rarely stay among the upper echelon of elite programs.

Historically, these two teams share more than you may know. They were both in the Border Conference from 1932 to 57 but never played one another during that span, reportedly because of segregation that still existed in Texas at the time.

Arizona State and Texas Tech have split the four previous matchups, with ASU winning in 1999, then dropping a highly disappointing Holiday Bowl in 2013 before an unforgettable eight-touchdown outing by Kalen Ballage that guided Arizona State to a 2016 win over a Patrick Mahomes-guided Red Raider team. In the most recent meeting, ASU dropped a road game in Lubbock to Texas Tech in 2017.

Since Arizona State's move to the Big 12 was announced last August, expectations and enthusiasm have remained high for the Sun Devils' debut in league play. Given ASU’s 3-0 start, the momentum is much higher than many would have predicted.

How rare is a 4-0 start for ASU? Since joining the Pac-10 Conference in 1978, the Sun Devils have only had five seasons with such a start – 1982, 1996, 2004, 2007, and 2016. Though 2016 was an odd season with a 4-0 start and a 5-7 final record, the other four seasons resulted in no fewer than nine wins.

To exit the state of Texas with yet another victory, ASU will have to remain tough and resilient, make balanced offensive efforts, and do all things necessary to prevent Tahj Brooks from performing dominantly.

If ASU can add another tally to its win total and return to Tempe undefeated with a bye week up ahead, things could get very interesting at Arizona State.

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