The well-rested BYU Cougars woke up Sunday morning after presumably getting an extra hour of sleep and found themselves alone atop the Big 12 football standings, thanks to red-hot rival Utah’s 45-14 crushing of No. 17 Cincinnati in Salt Lake City.
The Cougars also found themselves in a familiar situation. Once again they are a considerable underdog heading into their most important game in the 2025 college football season to date.
Second-place Texas Tech (8-1, 5-1) is around a 10-point favorite over No. 8 BYU (8-0, 5-0) in Saturday’s long-awaited clash at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.
The Red Raiders smashed Kansas State 43-20 on the Wildcats’ home field Saturday and have won two straight since that inexplicable 26-22 loss to Arizona State on Oct. 18 in Tempe, Arizona.
Late Saturday, before Utah sent Cincinnati packing, ESPN announced that its “College GameDay” pregame show will be in Lubbock for the BYU-Texas Tech matchup. It’s the first time the program will emanate from Lubbock since November 1, 2008. Under coach Mike Leach, then-No. 6 Tech edged No. 1 Texas that day.
Kickoff for Saturday’s tilt is set for 10 a.m. MST and the rematch of BYU’s 27-14 win in Provo in 2023 will be televised by ABC.
Having defeated West Virginia, Arizona, Utah and Iowa State in an October to remember, BYU takes another step up in competition against Texas Tech, the preseason pick to win the Big 12.
“Nothing is easy,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said last Monday. “We’re in the Big 12. We don’t know any better, but I do know that nothing is easy when you have a conference that has as much parity as the Big 12 does.”
Sitake said all the fanbases in the league “are awesome” and every program is well-coached and has great leadership. A sellout crowd in the 60,229-seat stadium in Lubbock is expected.
“It is a really deep conference, and everywhere we go the fans are amazing. They love their teams,” Sitake said. “The commissioner Brett Yormark said that himself. …. I love being a part of this conference and that we get to rep the Big 12 everywhere we go.
“Every BYU sport, not just with football, but all the sports, are benefiting from it. Cougar Nation’s in a really good spot right now, being involved and being partnered up with the Big 12.”
It is easy to see why now-No. 9 Texas Tech is a heavy favorite, despite BYU being undefeated and having the higher ranking. Tech is No. 11 in ESPN’s College Football Power Index (FPI), while BYU is No. 14. The Cougars’ strength of schedule is No. 46, while Tech’s SOS is No. 58.
BYU has the advantage of an extra week to prepare, which Sitake said last Monday would be utilized well.
“We’ve already had this schedule and everything set from the very beginning. So I’m feeling really good about how we handled the first bye. Now we’re at the second one,” Sitake said.
“I feel really good about where we’re going now, and my job as a head coach is to make sure (his players) mindset is right.”
Only four teams in the country remain undefeated — BYU, Indiana, Ohio State and Texas A&M — as Navy and Georgia Tech tasted defeat for the first time on Saturday.
To stay that way when the upcoming weekend is over, BYU will have to pull off one of its biggest upsets in program history.
After BYU beat Iowa State 41-27 in Ames as a four-point underdog, receiver Chase Roberts said disrespect comes with the territory for the Cougars, who have won 19 of their last 21 games.
“It has been like that the past two years, and we just go win games,” Roberts said. “That’s what we do at BYU, (so) they can keep making us underdogs (for all we care).”
BYU left Ames with several troubling injuries to key players, most notably an upper body injury sustained by top running back LJ Martin.
Safeties Raider Damuni and Tommy Prassas missed the game entirely, and linebacker Siale Esera was sidelined in the first half. Receiver JoJo Phillips is expected back for the first time since he left the 27-3 win over Stanford on September 6 with a collarbone injury.
Sitake said last week that reporters will have to wait until Wednesday’s release of availability reports for more information on the injuries and which players have been cleared to play against the Red Raiders.
