Lubbock, Texas – It has been a longtime since the Red Raider
faithful had a reason or excuse to rush the field celebrating a monumental
victory in Lubbock.
Texas Tech (5-1, 2-1 in Big 12
play) was able to deliver them a reason to do that and delivered in grand style
– upsetting the fifth-ranked team in the country.
“The fact that made me excited was
looking up at the scoreboard and seeing those numbers,” Tech starting
quarterback Seth Doege said following the upset. “That what internally made me
a kid and enjoying the fans rushing the field. I’ve always wanted to be part of
something like that, so that was awesome too.”
The Red Raider gunslinger finished
with a career-high 499 yards and tied a career-high with six touchdowns thrown
in the Red Raiders 49-14 beating of the Mountaineers.
After scoring a combined 118
points in the last two games, 70 against Baylor and 48 against Texas, the
Mountaineer offense seemed to have run into a wall.
West Virginia (5-1, 2-1) was held
to just 428 yards of total offense and Heisman-hopeful Geno Smith threw just
one touchdown in the game and went 29-for-55 for 275 yards in the loss.
“There were a number of things
that didn’t happen today,” Smith said. “Obviously we didn’t get the job done.
We didn’t come in with the right mind frame. I think we had a good game plan. I
think we had a great week of practice. We were focused coming in. But I just
think we got out there on the field and didn’t do enough to win the game and
that is really all there is to it.”
Entering the game the Tech defense
was ranked No. 2 in the country, only behind top-ranked Alabama, and lived up
to the ranking shutting down the Mountaineers in crucial moments.
West Virginia was held to 10-of-21
on third-down conversions and 1-of-6 on fourth-down conversions and senior Cody Davis said it was a team effort on the defensive side of the ball that created
the success.
“Yeah, it feels great,” he said.
“I think we’re back to where we want to be. We kind of fell off last week and
kind of took it personal, and everybody was wanting to know how it feels to
face the great offense and the Heisman hopeful. We get excited for that. You
can see it out there on the field. Everybody came ready to play, and we played
great on defense.”
As the defense stopped the Mountaineers,
the Red Raiders came right back onto the field and scored and scored some more.
Tech’s offense was firing on all
cylinders and one of the main targets for Doege in the game was his 6-foot-5
257 pound tight end Jace Amaro.
Amaro reeled in his first 100-yard
receiving performance of his career grabbing five passes for 156 yards and one
touchdown.
“Jace is a big target and a
big-time play maker,” Doege said. “We knew that coming into the season that we
were going to target him a lot. He keeps making plays. The thing about him is
man, if you could watch him on film he just dominates people in the run game.
Makes them look like rag dolls.”
The Tech running game was another
facet of the victory that the Red Raiders excelled in led by Sadale Foster, who
chipped in 89 yards on 10 carries, including a career-high 53-yard run for a
touchdown with 35 seconds left to go in the first half, which put the Red
Raiders up 35-7 at the time.
And in the second half would add
just 14 points, en route to the 49-14 victory.
“Well, what a game. Who would have
ever thought that that game would have been pretty much put away going into the
fourth quarter,” Tech head coach Tommy Tuberville said. “Really proud of our
players. Man, they worked hard all week. I thought the game plan on both sides,
offense and defense, was great.”