Texas Tech opens it's 2024 season against Abilene Christian on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at the newly renovated Jones AT&T Stadium.

The Red Raiders look to climb to new heights in year three under head coach Joey McGuire, playing meaningful games in the month of November.

"But whenever I start looking at success of the season, it's a long way off, but we got to play meaningful games in November," McGuire said. "And meaningful games, to me, in November, are not becoming bowl eligible.

I think that should be the the bottom, your floor of this program, that you're bowl eligible every single year. It should be, that you're playing meaningful games, meaning that you're going to be in the hunt for playing in the Big 12 championship, and I think that's really important."

McGuire and the Red Raiders' journey to competing for a Big 12 championship appearance begins against the Wildcats, a roster that should be very familiar to Tech fans in addition to the head coach, a former defensive coordinator for Tech in Keith Patterson.

Abilene Christian possesses six former Red Raiders on the offensive side of the football with two who have suited up and appeared in a McGuire coached game in wide receiver Trey Cleveland and running back Nehemiah Martinez.

"I love Trey Cleveland. Whenever he transferred, he was great whenever he came in my office. You know, I was a big fan of him, whenever he was at Arlington High he's a big play receiver, our first year he made some huge catches on some deep balls that were acrobatic catches." McGuire said.

"Nehemiah Martinez, you go back two years ago, my first year was really explosive. You know, dealt with some injuries last year, so didn't play as much, but he's tough to tackle. He's really physical."

While there is familiarity with some of the personnel, the Red Raiders are going up against a new offensive coordinator and a new defensive scheme as Patterson will be calling the defense for the Wildcats.

McGuire and his coaching staff have had to take a different approach to game planning for the season opener this weekend.

"Usually, a lot of it is the unknown going into game one," McGuire said. "I do think whenever it comes down to play callers, you are who you are for the most part. Sometimes you have to adapt because of injuries and stuff like that but for the most part you are who you are.

I'm expecting a lot of odd front defense, whenever it comes from Coach Patterson and and then you're going to see a tempo offense. You know, they got some air raid qualities about them whenever you look at their offense coordinator."

All in all, for the Red Raiders, it will be about being the best version of themselves against an FCS opponent to open the season, something that Tech is still searching for, especially along the offensive line.

The Red Raiders' right side of the offensive line will be a rotation against the Wildcats with senior Caleb Rogers taking snaps at both right guard and right tackle while senior guard Davion Carter and junior tackle Ty Buchanan will take the reps depending on Rogers' position.

"I think all three of them will rotate," McGuire said. "Coach Blanchard and I have talked a lot about this, offensive line is the only position in football that we've got to have a set five, you know, everybody's in this panic of this chemistry and all this stuff, and I get that a little bit.

So our mindset is the chemistry runs through number 76 because no matter who it is, Caleb Rogers going to be out there, so if Caleb Rogers is at right guard and Ty is it at right tackle, the chemistry is there. And if Caleb is at right tackle and Davion is at right guard, the chemistry is there. I expect all three of those guys to play on Saturday, and probably whenever you look at snap count, pretty close to equal."

With six offensive linemen that could play, the depth is there to ultimately keep the Red Raider offense humming, something that is also the case on the other side of the football.

"The beauty of this defense, I think you're going to see each week somewhere between 22 and 30 guys play on the defensive side of the ball," McGuire said. "It should translate us playing extremely hard on the defensive side of the ball."