No. 10 Texas Tech Hosts Arizona State After Sun Devils' Week 6 Win

LUBBOCK -- Texas Tech is one of the last unbeaten teams in college football after a wild Week 6 transpired while the Red Raiders sat at home.

Tech returns from its bye week with a matchup against Arizona State on Oct. 17 at Galaxy Stadium in Lubbock. The game, marked as Texas Tech's homecoming celebration, will be broadcast live on FOX at 2:30 p.m. CT.

Due to the handful of previously undefeated teams who lost on Saturday, Texas Tech rose from No. 11 to No. 10 in the latest Associated Press Top-25 poll.

The Sun Devils played their final non-conference game of the season this past weekend, defeating Hawaii at home 30-12 on Saturday. Arizona State improved to 3-2 in the win.

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The Red Raiders' run defense was among the best in the nation a year ago, and while much has been made about Texas Tech not dominating teams to a similar degree as 2025, that hasn't entirely been because of the defense's shortcomings.

That's especially against the run. The Red Raiders are allowing just 91.4 rushing yards per game to their opponents.

That will need to carry over from the bye week, as the Sun Devils ran for 231 yards as a team against the Rainbow Warriors. Freshman running back Cardae Mack accounted for a career-high 154 yards and the first two rushing touchdowns of his career.

While quarterback Cutter Boley performed adequately (21/31, 189 yards, 2 TD), Mack was the driving force. Boley also added 50 yards of his own on the ground. 

"We just had to get back in our groove and find ourselves," Mack said. Arizona State was coming off a 55-19 loss at home to Baylor in Week 5.

"The only people that can stop us is us."

Arizona State was responsible for Texas Tech not completing a perfect regular season in 2025.

The Red Raiders fell in Tempe 26-22 on Oct. 18. Tech responded to the loss by winning the next five games of the regular season by an average of 35 points.

This time around, the Sun Devils have another opportunity to spoil an undefeated Red Raiders team.

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Tech is coming off a 29-7 win at Colorado on Oct. 3. Once again, the offensive execution in the first half was below McGuire's expectations.

The Red Raiders conducted a "self-scout" during the bye week to identify ways to get better.

"One thing I think we gotta improve is going back to our day-1 installs. The most comfortable reps are the plays where Will [Hammond] is comfortable with to start the game, [to] get him going early," McGuire said this week.

"I do think some of the stuff we're doing in our run game - we gotta capitalize on the things we're doing well," the coach added, "then maybe kick some plays out that we're not doing well."

When Tech has the ball, the run game will go strictly through J'Koby Williams and Quinten Joyner after bruising starter Cam Dickey went down with a high-ankle sprain against the Buffaloes.