Commentary: This is a fish that Tech should keep

The opponent was Houston Baptist – the university, not a church. It was two years ago, and the delayed 2020 college football season under the cloud of COVID was tepidly beginning.

This was almost ideal for Texas Tech, opening against a lower-division opponent which had been playing football for just seven years and won only five games in the previous three.

What should have been an opening night stroll was anything but that. HBU rolled up a humbling 600 yards and the Red Raiders had to hang on to the ball the last 3:23 to seal a 35-33 win that felt much more like a loss.

A year ago, Tech opened at Houston and defeated the Cougars, 38-21. The Raiders strutted back to Lubbock for the home opener against Stephen F. Austin, again from the lower division of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

Tech was expected to continue its momentum and muscle flex. Instead, the Raiders had to hold off SFA four times inside their 10 in the last minute to hang on to a sobering 28-22 win.

These were two fishes on hooks you wanted to throw back in the water.

For any Tech fans trying to put context around what was a 63-10 rout of Murray State on Saturday night, if nothing else, take comfort that it was nothing like the previous two years. Same FCS division, almost the same records the previous years for SFA (6-4) and Murray State (6-5) and some numbers of returnees, but a much different look to this one.

It was a sterling and much-anticipated debut for coach Joey McGuire. Just under 59,000 fans were on hand, hoping for the best but Tech history also had them conditioned for the worst, or at least the unexpected, even against an overmatched foe that few could name what state they were from. Answer: Kentucky.

How long would the Raiders play down to the opponent? What boneheaded mistakes would keep an inferior team in the game? How many lazy penalties would Tech incur?

Somewhat surprisingly, none of that occurred. Oh, the secondary looked rusty on the deep ball. MSU receivers got behind Tech safeties and cornerbacks for 209 first-half yards. Too aggressive and poor ball instincts led to some breakdowns.

Otherwise, Tech did what it wanted when it wanted. Only Centennial Champion, the new Masked Rider horse, had a shaky debut. He trotted gingerly on the team entrance.

The game was over before halftime. Six possessions, six touchdowns and a 42-10 halftime lead. Tyler Shough and Donovan Smith combined for four touchdown passes and Tahj Brooks ran for two more scores.

New coordinator Zach Kittley’s schemes had receivers wide open. A young offensive line protected. Fourteen different players caught passes led by Jerand Bradley’s six receptions. Defensively, tackle Jaylon Hutchings helped hold the Racers to 50 yards rushing on 41 attempts, a paltry 1.2 yards a carry.

When freshman QB Behren Morton hit Mason Tharp for a 14-yard score less than a minute into the fourth quarter and a 63-10 lead, thousands had given their seal of approval and headed for their vehicles.

“I thought all day to just focus on us playing the best we could all play,” said McGuire of his first game as a head coach since 2016. “I told the guys, ‘It’s not about me. It’s not about one person. It’s about all of us and how we play this game tonight.’”

What prevented a near-flawless night at Jones AT&T Stadium was yet another injury to Shough late in the first quarter. The starting quarterback broke his collarbone late last September against Texas and missed the rest of the season. He may have the same injury again when he was tackled at the end of a first-down run.

In his stead, Smith, who started the last five games a year ago and was the Liberty Bowl MVP, was 14 of 16 for 221 yards and four touchdowns in about 1 ½ quarters. The drop-off should not be glaring.

With the exception of two games, it was an opening bakery of cupcakes for Big 12 Conference teams that had to measure performance against talent mismatches. The goodies included South Dakota, Southeast Missouri State, Tennessee Tech, Albany, Central Michigan, Louisiana-Monroe and UTEP. Winning margins were 25, 46, 32, 59, 53, 32, 34, 42 and 14 points.

It’s best not to jump to any snap judgments after one game, but sports overreactions are a way of life. Tech started 3-0 a year ago. There was talk of turning the corner -- and Matt Wells was fired five games later. How it looks like in September is not always how it looks around Thanksgiving, good or bad.

But for sure, one Saturday night on the South Plains against an overmatched visitor was a much better performance than the previous two. For a program trying to establish a new identity under a new coach, it was a start.

Jon Mark Beilue is a 1981 graduate of Texas Tech. He has been writing about Red Raiders sports for five decades.