The Texas Tech football season got underway on Friday as they took on the Mustangs of Southern Methodist University from Ford Field in Dallas.  It also marked the beginning of the Kliff Kingsbury era as he has been the talk of the town this off-season.

In the weeks leading up to the match up, their has been much controversy over who would be the starting quarterback for the Red Raiders.  Preferred walk on Baker Mayfield would be awarded the job for the season opener and would not disappoint.

The Red Raiders first drive started good but some costly penalties forced them to settle for a field goal.  The defense looked strong in the opening quarter as it held the Mustangs to just a field goal and after one quarter of play, the game was tied 3-3.

The second quarter starter much like the first as Texas Tech drove down and but due to another penalty, Red Raider kicker Ryan Bustin kicked his second field goal of the contest giving tech the 6-3 lead.

Ashley Wirz, 1340TheFan.com.
Ashley Wirz, 1340TheFan.com.
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The offense would struggle for most of the first half as the offensive line had a really difficult time getting a consistent push, but they did finally get the ball across the goal line late in the second half as Baker Mayfield (Pictured on the Left) hit Jordan Davis for a 33 yard touchdown pass to put the Red Raiders up 13-6.  SMU would add another field goal at the end of the second half to make the halftime score 13-9.

SMU would get the ball to start the second half and would put together a 65 yard, 9 play drive but would miss a field goal deep in Tech territory to give the ball back to the Red Raiders.  Texas Tech's offense would respond almost immediately as they drove straight down and scored on a Baker Mayfield touchdown pass to wide receiver Bradley Marquez.  The drive went 80 yards off of 13 plays and took a little over three minutes making the lead 20-9 with 7:53 remaining.

SMU would also respond as they drove down the following drive and scored on a 23 yard run by Garrett Gilbert making the score 20-16.  The teams would go back and forth for the rest of the third and after three quarters of play the score was 20-16.

Baker Mayfield showed why he was named starter early in the fourth quarter as he scrambled for a twelve yard touchdown run and made some shifty moves to get there.  That score put Texas Tech up 27-16.  He would add another touchdown pass to Jakeem Grant to put Tech up 34-16 and effectively put the game out of reach.

Kliff Kingsbury and company would hold on to win his first game as the head coach for the Red Raiders with a final score of 41-23.  Will smith led the defense as he finished the game with seven tackles and two sacks.  Baker Mayfield had a solid first game as he scored five times, four through the air and one on the ground, and threw for over four hundred yards in the win.

Texas Tech will play host to the Stephan F. Austin Lumberjacks next week in their home opener.  Kick off is set for 6:00 pm from Jones AT&T Stadium and can be seen on FOX Sports Net.

 

 

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