Head coach Joey McGuire explains who will and won't be on the plane to the Pacific Northwest.
LUBBOCK -- Texas Tech is about to go wheels up for the first time in the 2026 season as a Saturday afternoon contest at Oregon State in Corvallis awaits the 1-0 and No. 13-ranked Red Raiders.
The Beavers return home after losing to Tech's next opponent, No. 23 Houston, in their season-opener, 33-20.
While it was a convincing win, the Red Raiders' performance wasn't without its fair share of concerns. Tech's staff has often pitched the adage that a team's biggest improvements of the season come between the first two games, and that will be put to the test against an FBS opponent in unfamiliar territory.
The matchup between Oregon State and Texas Tech will be just the third all-time meeting between the two sides. They met last season in Lubbock, where Tech stormed to a 45-14 victory. The only other battle was back in 1959.
For Red Raiders tight end Jett Carpenter, however, it's a homecoming. Carpenter grew up in Medford, Oregon - just 210 miles south of Corvallis.
"I'm super excited to get back home," the fifth-year senior said this week. "Earlier in my career I played Oregon when I was at Eastern Washington, so now being able to get back and play Oregon State - my two kinda hometown colleges - is just something that's a dream come true.
"I'm gonna have a lot of people out there - friends, family, people from high school, teachers from high school. Everyone's going, so I'm trying to get as many tickets as I can."
Status update for Trey White, LaDamion Guyton
Tech head coach Joey McGuire began his rundown of Week 2 injuries with starting safety Brenden Jordan remaining out due to a violation of team rules before the opener.
Peyton Morgan and Malik Esquerra covered the defensive backfield in place of Jordan, who started every game last season and was often the defensive play-caller for coordinator Shiel Wood.
"Brenden's like my partner in crime," said cornerback Brice Pollock about the change, "so it's been a little different having him not out there, but I've been getting real used to Peyton [Morgan] and Malik [Esquerra] out there. Peyton is a great communicator. I think he knows how to really project his voice out there, too."
Defensive end Trey White will also miss his second game of the season because of a knee injury from the end of fall camp that listed him as "week-to-week."
Jamond Mathis picked up 2.5 sacks at EDGE with White out, and the pass rush department will get another boost this week as highly-touted freshman LaDamion Guyton is set to make his Red Raiders debut, according to McGuire.
"As long as he continues to feel the way he feels, then I expect LaDamion to play," McGuire said. "And that gives us another weapon off the edge, which will be really good."
Guyton, a 6-4 233-pounder from Savannah, Georgia, is Texas Tech's highest-rated defensive recruit in program history. The 5-star edge rusher reclassified up from the 2027 to 2026 high school class in order to join the team this season. He totaled 76 tackles, 15.0 tackles for loss, 7.0 sacks and 27 quarterback hurries last season to earn first team All-State honors by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Texas Tech will match up with Mercer transfer quarterback Braden Atikinson, who threw for 376 yards and a touchdown in the sophomore's FBS debut last week.
"You gotta bring that energy," Tech defensive lineman Mateen Ibirogba said about playing on the road. "Because you're going to a home crowd - the other team already has energy. So, you really have to pull your team together."
