Head coach Joey McGuire has taken Texas Tech to a second 3-1 start to a season in his coaching tenure after Saturday's 30-22 win over Arizona State.
The Red Raiders found a way to win on a day where the Red Raiders had some offensive struggle and penalty issues, but it amounted to another one in the win column.
"I'm really proud of our football team today," McGuire said. "Whenever I close my eyes and I think about football, man, this is what I think about, you know, playing off of each other, complimentary football, our special teams having to go out and make big kicks, physical defense...I'm really proud of them. I thought our guys fought really hard and it's great to be 1-0 in Big 12 play."
Tech's ability on defense was big, getting an interception from CJ Baskerville and creating three turnovers on downs, giving the offense plenty of opportunities to put it away.
"I thought the defense played really well," McGuire said. "They got the big play, the same thing that happened last week to us, but besides that one play, we played really well on defense. We made them drive the field...They were 0-3 on fourth down, you think about that, like when you're going for it on fourth down, those are turnovers, so we created four turnovers on defense, which is really good defense."
However, the Tech offense struggled to ice it, and the penalties didn't help, something that McGuire agrees that he has to see from his team moving forward.
"We're eliminating some of the pre-snap penalties, so if there's anything good about the number of penalties we're getting right now, we're getting rid of some of the pre-snap penalties," McGuire said.
"Some of that is frustrating, we could've gone up 21-0 and we had to punt. We've got to be better and more disciplined...we have to eliminate some of those penalties and that kept us from really stretching the lead."
McGuire mentioned frustration with execution in pass protection, alongside some drops from the offense, but it ultimately became a win for the Red Raiders, who have another chance to add to it before leaving town against Cincinnati next weekend.
