Texas Tech Week 13: Turf To Tranquility

From Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark’s seat, he needs to examine the idea of having four teams on a bye week the week before the end of the season. All Big 12 teams need to be playing games for the last two weeks of the season. Period. But for the Texas Tech week 13 schedule to have their second bye week couldn’t have worked out better for them. Just like a good spa day, it’s an opportunity for this team to recharge physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Texas Tech Week 13: Turf To Tranquility

What The Team Will Watch For

There is a very clear-cut scenario for the Red Raiders to clinch a spot in the Big 12 championship game without taking the field on Saturday. BYU needs to beat Cincinnati, and Colorado to beat Arizona State. Last Word actually likes the chances of this coming to fruition when looking at all the Big 12 games. In that scenario, the matchup will produce round two against Kalani Sitake’s Cougars. Red Raider fans could only hope the second matchup went as well as the first in Lubbock. Even if it doesn’t play out that way, Texas Tech is in firm control of its destiny. Regardless of any other result in the conference this week or next week, a win over West Virginia they officially punch their ticket to Arlington.

Players Who Need To Spend The Most Time At The Spa

After playing 11 games, everyone on the team is beat up. But there are some key contributors that need some extra TLC to be as close to 100% as possible for the rest of the season. The most obvious player that comes to mind is starting quarterback Behren Morton. The veteran quarterback has been playing with a hairline fracture in his fibula most of the season. Morton’s grit has been obvious in his career at Texas Tech due to the numerous injuries he has played through over the years. But this offense will only reach its ceiling (which they only finally came close to last week against UCF) with Morton healthy. Based exclusively on last week’s injury report against UCF, defensive tackle Lee Hunter, linebacker John Curry, and Bronko Nagurski and Lombardi finalist Jacob Rodriguez are the biggest names that this team needs back at full strength. Defensive linemen Skyler Gill-Howard was still seen on a scooter at Saturday’s game. When he went down with his injury in early October, the goal was to always have him back for the playoffs. With Texas Tech sitting at five in the last playoff rankings, there is a decent chance that a 13-1 Big 12 champion Red Raider team could sneak into the four spot. In that scenario, with the quarterfinals scheduled for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, Gill-Howard would have an additional five-plus weeks to heal and get back into game shape.