Meet Your Insider
Howdy. Bodie Ratliff. Texas Tech insider for The Cover Window. I ride bareback at the rodeo, and in tumbleweed season I chart Air Raid concepts on the back of feed-store receipts. I travel with the team. I live with the team. People say I don't talk much. They're right. One word usually does it, and the wind fills in the rest. Somebody asks how the defense looked? "Mean." How was the trip? "Windy." When we win, I say "Guns up," real quiet, and then I grin longer than anybody's comfortable with. When we lose, I stare into the wind with my hat in my hand. Every week you'll get the players, the coaches and the matchup from inside the program, West Texas plain. My motto: "Guns up, wind's up."
The School in 60 Seconds
Last season was the best in school history. Texas Tech went 12-2, crushed BYU 34-7 to win the Big 12 championship and made its first College Football Playoff. That was the program's first outright conference title since 1955. The run ended with a 23-0 loss to Oregon in the Orange Bowl. Home is Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, listed at 60,454. And the run hasn't stopped: Tech is 18-2 since the start of 2025, and 17 of those wins came by double digits. Long story short. "Good."
The Coach and the Scheme
Joey McGuire was hired on Nov. 8, 2021. He's 41-18 in five seasons and 26-5 at home. The Air Raid jokes still follow us around, but this team is built on the ground and on defense. Tech runs on about 56% of its plays, at 5.12 yards a carry with 16 rushing touchdowns. It averages 37.8 points a game. On defense, opponents gain only 2.87 yards a carry and 82.0 rushing yards a game. Tech has 17 sacks and 12 takeaways, and its 11 interceptions are the second-most in the country. One word: "Stingy."
Players to Know
QB Will Hammond: 1,334 yards, 6 TD, 5 INT.
RB J'Koby Williams: 538 yards and 5 TD. He had a career day against Arizona State with 165 yards and two scores.
WR Kenny Johnson: a team-high 418 receiving yards, including 7 catches for 120 last week. WR Coy Eakin: a team-high 3 receiving TDs.
K Stone Harrington: 4 of 5 on field goals against Arizona State.
Defense: A.J. Holmes Jr. leads with 4 sacks, and Austin Romaine leads with 41 tackles.
The Conference Picture
Texas Tech is 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the Big 12, 4-0 at home and 2-0 on the road. The Red Raiders are No. 8 in the AP poll and No. 5 in the Coaches Poll this week. It's their second straight 6-0 start, and a win would make only the fifth 7-0 start in school history. We've won four straight road games going back to last season, including 35-24 at Oregon State and 29-7 at Colorado this year. It's one of six unbeaten teams in the country. Next come back-to-back home dates with Arizona and West Virginia. One word: "Busy."
This Week: No. 8 Texas Tech (6-0) at Cincinnati (4-2)
Saturday, Oct. 24 · Noon ET (11 a.m. CT) · Nippert Stadium, Cincinnati · FS1. It's Texas Tech's first trip ever to Nippert, and Cincinnati's 100th Homecoming game.
Last week: Tech beat Arizona State 53-25 and averaged 7.8 yards a play. Cincinnati lost 45-42 at West Virginia on a 35-yard field goal as time ran out.
Our offense vs. their defense: Cincinnati allows 26.8 points and 434.3 yards a game, and 294.0 passing yards. LB Jonathan Thompson had a career-high 15 tackles last week, and the Bearcats held West Virginia's Big 12-leading run game to 134 yards.
Their offense vs. our defense: this is the big one. Cincinnati hasn't thrown an interception all year and has just two turnovers, the fewest in the country. QB JC French IV threw for a career-high 389 yards last week, and RB Cole Tabb has 8 rushing touchdowns. They run for 5.93 a carry. Our run defense allows 2.87. Something gives. "Wind."
Series: this is just the third meeting. The teams tied 10-10 in 1968, and Tech won 44-41 in 2024 behind 172 rushing yards from Tahj Brooks.
Availability: I found no official availability report for either team as of Oct. 18, 2026.
What decides it: (1) Can our ball-hawking defense take one away from a team that never gives it up? (2) Can we stop Tabb and French on the ground? (3) Hammond protecting the football on the road.
And to Skyline Abernathy, Cincinnati's insider: chili's good. Wind's better. See you Saturday.
Local Flavor (unsponsored, not an ad)
Watching in Lubbock? Robles Taquería on Main Street. Tacos. Enough said.
My call: Texas Tech Red Raiders 35, Cincinnati Bearcats 23.