LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Behren Morton passed for two touchdowns and 201 yards and Tahj Brooks rushed for 117 yards against a defense that had allowed an average of just 65.3 per game as Texas Tech beat Arizona State 30-22 on Saturday in the Sun Devils’ Big 12 Conference debut.
Tech (3-1, 1-0) got field goals of 39 and 30 yards from Gino Garcia and 40 yards from Reese Burkhardt.
Red Raiders coach Joey McGuire oddly told his team at halftime he was happier with the 17-10 lead playing ball control football than last week, when Tech passed its way to a 52-7 lead over North Texas and won 66-21. ASU averaged almost 36 minutes of possession going into Saturday, ranked fourth in FBS, and had the ball for 25:49.
“When I close my eyes and think about football, this is what I think about,” McGuire said. “Playing off of each other, complimentary football. Special teams having to go out and make big kicks. Playing good defense. And then we’ve got the best back in the country.”
Morton’s TD passes were 5 yards to Johncarlos Miller II and 20 yards to Josh Kelly on Tech’s first two possessions. The other touchdown for Texas Tech (3-1, 1-0) came when tight end Jalin Conyers scored a 3-yard direct-snap rushing touchdown against his former team.
Conyers, a Texas native who played at ASU the three previous seasons, scored on the opening drive of the second half to double the Red Raiders’ lead to 24-10.
Cam Skattebo ran for two 3-yard touchdowns, the second with 1:39 to play, and Sam Leavitt scored from 1 yard out for Arizona State (3-1, 0-1). Ian Hershey kicked a 34-yard ASU field goal.
Sun Devils coach Kenny Dillingham lamented Tech taking a 14-0 lead eight minutes in.
“We just couldn’t close out the gap all game,” Dillingham said. “I learned that our guys are going to fight. Sometimes it doesn’t go your way.”
Skattebo came into the game ranked seventh in FBS averaging 124.3 rushing yards and was held to 60 on 18 carries but had 117 yards receiving, 113 after contact, on six catches.
Brooks went in averaging 131.0 a game but didn’t qualify for the rushing leaders because he missed one of Tech’s previous three games with an arm injury. The fifth-year senior moved into fifth place in school career rushing with 3,431 yards.
The Color Yellow
The first half was fraught with penalties against both teams. Tech was flagged eight times for 79 yards, Arizona State seven times for 59. The Red Raiders finished with nine penalties for 94 yards, the Sun Devils eight for 69. “I think that’s our first game since I’ve been here that I can say we were undisciplined, and we’ve got to get that fixed,” said Dillingham, in his second season at ASU.
The Takeaway
Arizona State has already matched its win total for each of the previous two seasons. We’ll see how the team that was picked to finish last in the Big 12 will react to its first loss of the year. “We’ve got four games and a bye week, four games and a bye week (and four more),” Skattebo said. “Each four games need to be a new season. After this bye week we need to come back with more fire. We kind of lost that fire a little bit.”
The Red Raiders will now seek their first 2-0 conference start since 2013, when Kliff Kingsbury’s first Tech team opened 4-0 in league play but finished 4-5.
Up Next
Arizona State will be off next week and play its first Big 12 home game on Oct. 5 against Kansas.
Texas Tech will host Cincinnati on Sept. 28.
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The Associated Press