Texas Tech is coming off a massive win in Ames over then No. 11 Iowa State over the weekend, a win that vaulted Tech back into the conversation as the 2024 season heads down the stretch.
After a massive upset in Ames, Texas Tech returns home to face Deion Sanders' Colorado Buffaloes, in a game that has been sold out for months and will have tons of pomp and circumstance surrounding it.
FOX will televise the game, set to kick at 3 p.m., but has also chosen Tech to host their flagship morning show Big Noon Kickoff on Saturday morning.
With all that surrounds this game and what comes to town as one of the biggest stories in college football, head coach Joey McGuire is hammering into his team that they must focus on the football game at hand, not getting caught up in the external matters.
"I think that's really important this week in this game, that's going to be a big job for me this week, of keeping it like that, because there's so many things that are going on this week, whenever it comes to this game, before the ball is ever kicked off...It's great that we're going to play on a national stage. It's great that we're playing such a great football team in Colorado. We're wearing Patrick Mahomes uniforms, all of that is awesome," McGuire said. "If we get caught up in that, and we're not going to take advantage and of the opportunity we have. So we've got to make it about the football, that's going to be a driving theme all week on what we need to do."
After getting a result in Ames after back-to-back crushing losses to end October, Texas Tech is back into the conversation atop the Big 12, but with Colorado ahead of them in the standings, Tech has a massive opportunity on Saturday against a very strong team.
"We said it at the start of the year, it's really important for us to play meaningful games in November. We we took a step back and didn't think that we'd we would be able to do that after back to back losses, and we turned around and won a great game, great team win on Saturday, and it put us right back in the mix," McGuire said. "So got an opportunity. We've got to make the most of it."
It won't come easy against Colorado who likely have the most dynamic offensive personnel that Tech has faced all season long and a defense that has continued to improve over the course of the season.
"We've got our hands full. I mean, offensively, they're as good as anybody in the country," McGuire said. "As good as Travis (Hunter) is, every single one of their receivers are big time players. And then defensively, they're playing really well. You're talking about a defense has made huge improvements throughout the season. It's really impressive. And so we've got to make it about the football, that's the theme of the week."
