That's all..

- This is Texas Tech's first ranked win since 2019. It's the first time since 1989 the Red Raiders took down a ranked non-conference opponent at home (Arizona, 24-14)

- Red Raider QB's who wear No. 7 are 3-1 against Dana Holgorsen. Shoutout to the radio team for those facts.

- I posted in the live thread but in my eyes teams prior to this one in recent years probably would've folded in regulation. I had the Red Raiders chalked up and done on the 4th and 20. Leave it to Zach Kittley to gain 21 on a play he said was called "Double Z."

- Texas Tech's offensive line proved to be the true worry tonight. Weston Wright going down doesn't help that units future, but they somehow powered through. They'll need big time rest after today. Caleb Rogers struggled against a really good DE in Derek Parish. I'm quite surprised we didn't see a ton of holding calls on the Red Raiders in this one. Donovan Smith couldn't stay clean.

- While I brought it up, Houston had 11 penalties called for 121 yards compared to Texas Tech's six for 45.

- Smith struggled and looked pretty off in the offense pretty much the entire second half. Up 17-3, the Red Raiders felt good. But, as I think we'll see the rest of the year, Houston completed the epic comeback to force OT for the second-straight week for them. Donovan sometimes looked as though he might've checked out of some plays and kept the ball himself. We hope to found out how much control he has when it comes to checking out of plays. This was the biggest test early in the schedule. Smith went 36-of-57 for 351 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions. We'll see how they transition on the road against NC State, who won their game today in blowout fashion, 55-3, albeit against Charleston Southern.

- Some questionable plays were called during this game especially on third down. I wonder why they decided to spot the ball with 11 seconds left, call a timeout at eight seconds remaining then kick the field goal to tie. I would've taken a shot in the middle of the field or end zone then called a timeout. However, it doesn't really matter because it still worked in Tech's favor. *shoulder shrug*

- I'm curious as to how Adrian Frye has remained the punt returner. Nehemiah Martinez needs to be back there. Also, why not fair catch those punts instead of trying to make something out of nothing. I don't know if that's being coached but Frye needs to be aware. The Red Raiders need a special teams threat for sure.

- Martinez and Tahj Brooks played tough and aggressive today. Martinez didn't have much action in the second half but his five catches for 76 yards were hard fought. Brooks had a quiet 80 yards but his score in OT obviously was big "Tahj" time.

- Malik Dunlap was very impressive today. He was in position to make key pass breakups including the Clayton Tune pass in 2OT on third down to force the field goal, 33-30. He played lights out.

- Philip Blidi was putting in work in the trenches. He should've had a sack but a hold that sent back the Cougars took that away. But his TFL was big time. He's exploding onto the scene in Lubbock. He, Jaylon Hutchings, Tony Bradford Jr., and Tyree Wilson are making a name for themselves ahead of conference play.

- Krishon Merriweather was all over the field today. Losing Colin Schooler, Riko Jeffers, Jordyn Brooks (two years ago) had me worried that this would be the year that Tech would lose the Linebacker U tag that I give them. That doesn't seem like the case. Krishon was very aggressive. He pressured Tune multiple times to hurry up the Cougar QB. He led the team with eight total tackles today.

- Tim DeRuyter took over a defense that Keith Patterson really deserves a lot of credit for building. DeRuyter turned up the aggressiveness this game. The Cougars were 5-of-16 on third down. Another shoutout here - the strength and conditioning staff has this team working hard enough to survive regulation and two overtimes. We saw multiple times Houston players go down and tons of rotating in out. That wasn't the case from the looks of it for the Red Raiders.

- Texas Tech is 2-0 for the second-straight season with the first road trip coming up next Saturday in Raleigh against NC State. This win was hard-fought and I'll reiterate it - I think teams prior wouldn't have the same outcome (as we saw plenty of times) that we witnessed today.

This game is enormous. Want to win it real bad. It's got all the feels of a swing game for the rest of our season, considering we are small home favorites and stand to be TD+ underdogs in our next two games. It's pivotal to be 2-1 heading into the UT game at home. Here's what I think are the three biggest keys to the game.

UH's Pass Rush v. Tech's OL, RBs, TEs, and Donovan Smith

This is a big one. UH has what appears to be legitimate P5 pass-rushing options. They call their D-line "Sack Ave" and absolutely got after UTSA. Generated 32 pressures and 4 sacks. For comparison, UH had just 13 pressures v. Tech last year.

#44 D'Anthony Jones - 6'2 270 lbs. Unheralded JUCO Transfer. Had a sack in last year's game in Houston. High motor guy.

#0 Derek Parrish - 6'2 245 lbs. No offers out of Pearland from anyone but UH. Had a sack in last year's game in Houston. Another high motor guy. Had surgery on his hand about a week ago, but still played damn near every snap against UTSA.

#9 Nelson Ceaser - 6'3 245. Legit 4 star prospect out of Missouri City. Had a Tech offer. This guy must be a physical freak. Played primarily on the interior DL last year. This year, he plays everywhere. He was used to spy UTSA's QB quite a bit last Saturday, and I bet they employ the same strategy this week. Was credited with 9 pressures and a sack against UTSA.

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They have some other options but these are the guys that will have our attention. We're going to learn a lot about Monroe Mills this week. I'm a little nervous for him. He's played 69 career snaps. I don't think any have been against a P5 team. Real bullets will be flying Saturday. I don't think he will be physically disadvantaged like he might be a couple times later on in the year against some of the Big 12 pass rushers, so we need him to hold up on Saturday. It could only get worse for him from here.

I'm not as worried about Caleb Rogers. But, as mentioned above, the pass rushers are only going to get better from here on out. Him having trouble against UH is a really bad indicator for the rest of the season.

Donovan Smith is listed in bold as part of this match-up because he's going to be critical in negating UH's pass rush. If they are winning battles on the edge, will UH also be able to contain him when the pocket breaks down? Frank Harris for UTSA had his moments getting loose against UH in these spots. But he's a different runner than Donovan -- a little faster, much slighter, not as big of an arm. Donovan should be tougher to bring down and could make UH pay deeper downfield in scramble scenarios.

Our Secondary v. UH's WRs

UH has some real dudes at WR. Well, at least one. #1 Tank Dell will be one of the fastest, most electric guys we play all year. He's a burner. I think he plays in the NFL if his body can hold up. I'd like to see Muddy Waters and Reggie Pearson get their hands on him a couple times with bad intentions to see if we can knock him out of the game. I think the game plan has to be to try to deny him the ball (and that goes for special teams too... Austin McNamara needs to be on point (he will be)). Who covers him? I have no idea. 64 of his 74 snaps against UTSA were in the slot. I don't think we use Rayshad or Frye or Dunlap on him. They probably take the outside guys. Blankenbaker? Dadrian? Muddy?

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#10 Matthew Golden is another slender-build burner. He will play outside and draw one of our top 3 corners. Got to keep him in front.

#18 Joseph Manjack is a former 4-star that was castaway-ed by Lincoln Riley at USC. He looks pretty good and may have passed up Kesean Carter if their usage against UTSA is any indicator.

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#8 Ke'Sean Carter didn't play that much on Saturday and only ran 14 routes. I wonder if his dad is b*tching on twitter about his usage or playing time the way he did when he played for Kingsbury or Wells? Still, we know he's pretty good and he's played quite a bit of football by now. Really physical for his build and can definitely run.

#85 Christian Trahan is a monster TE that is heavily involved in their passing game (30 routes ran).

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I am primarily worried about their speed guys getting behind us. Or catching the ball in front of us with a lot of room to operate. This will be a really good test for our secondary. Unlike the test for our OL, it may not get too terribly tougher for our secondary going forward. We will definitely face larger, more physical WRs in the Big 12, but maybe not the kind of top-end speed that UH will have.

Our Defense v. Clayton Tune's Legs

It's uncanny. When sh*t hits the fan, Tune is running the ball. The most critical downs on Saturday for our defense will be Tune runs. There will be designed runs on 3rd and medium. And there will be scrambles on 3rd and long. If we stop him from running the ball effectively, we will win this game. He's a much better athlete than you might expect (so you're saying he's white, huh?). Had 8 carries for 66 yards, a TD, and a 2-pt conversion against UTSA. I bet you those 8 runs were the highest-leverage plays of the game. Against us last year, Tune had 8 carries for 59 yards and a TD. The rest of their team carried the ball 21 times for just 44 yards.

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Houston's OL had problems against UTSA. I believe we'll be able to get after him on dropbacks. They (still) don't have an answer for Tyree Wilson. But can we get home on plays where Tyree and others win 1v1s? Or will they turn in to big runs by Tune. We also need to tee off on Tay'Zahn Henry when he's in pass pro. He got knocked out of the UTSA game (shocker), but he's not going to be effective blocking our edge rushers.

I didn't really notice it (I'm also not a football coach), but our coaching staff was pretty critical of our edge guys for letting Murray State's QB get outside the pocket and connect on some of those deep throws. We've got to be sound on Saturday. Tune is also willing to put his body in harm's way. Would love to see Reggie Pearson get a clean shot at him. He's got the potential for getting knocked out of the game if he isn't careful.



Ryan left it all out on the field in everything he did. In his honor, we bring you Fields of Gold, so that others facing bone cancer can keep on playing. A portion of proceeds from every case sold is donated to The Little Warrior Foundation.

The Little Warrior Foundation's mission is to fund & find a lasting cure for childhood cancer, with a specific focus on Ewing's Sarcoma.



@Saynotobarefoot

Would seem like an obvious choice and I'm sure they can money whip him.

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Holy moly. He's so far ahead of any other quarterback. The most important position across all of sports, and he's an order of magnitude better than anyone else. I love it.

Really struggling to stay awake during this Panthers/Browns game.

Yesterday was yet another reminder that CFB is just so much more fun to watch and follow week to week than the NFL.

I'm currently at an AirBnb near 43rd and Slide. Haven't watched highlights and barely looked at the boxscore. It'll be interesting to compare these thoughts to how I feel after a few rewatches and closer look at the key stats. It feels really good to be 2-0.

> Props to the secondary. They tackled really well and were stingy in the air. That was, by far, the best game I've seen out of Malik Dunlap. He was making plays all over the place in one-on-one situations. I thought Rabbit, Muddy, Rayshad, and Pearson all ranged between solid to great. That was the secondary I thought we could have going into the season.

> I'm hoping this impression changes after a closer look, but it felt like our OL was getting eviscerated on every snap. Just melting away. At the same time, it felt like Donovan was taking too long to process things and get the ball out when he should. Those two things, in combination, were a terrible Saturday. There was a guy a row below me scrolling through the RRS game thread, and I asked him "what are the idiots saying?" He yelled back, "they are all bitching about our OL... literally everyone is." Anytime you have en exchange like that during a game, something bad is happening.

> Brady Boyd didn't play very much but I noticed him several times blocking downfield. Our whole WR group blocked really well. Loic Founji had a good one 40 yards downfield on Myles Price's long catch-and-run before half.

> I can't recall the last time we had a QB throw 3 interceptions in one half. It's amazing we won the game considering some of the situations Donovan, our O-line, and offense in general put the defense in. Our defense held UH to FGs on 3 drives that started inside our own 25 yard-line (including the OT one). There was also the pick for snacks that occurred immediately after the defense set up the offense around midfield after a Reggie Pearson interception. The only legitimate scoring drive that UH put together was the first one of the second half. UH never had a sustained drive lead to a TD. And that has been there MO for the last two seasons.

> Thank goodness UH botched the punt return. Fatal mistake kicking the ball to Tank Dell and I wonder how that game turns out had UH not roughed McNamara. That's the second punt return Dell has had called back this year. He was really good. The fastest player on the field, by far. Speaking of fast players, did Myles Price get dinged up?

> The intentional grounding by Donovan inside the red zone was killer. You'd like to think our QB would know the rules in that situation, especially considering how slow developing that screen was. I'll have to re-watch it, but I'm pretty sure it was a play-action / QB power screen. It didn't work at all. Donovan didn't know the rules because he clearly spiked the ball thinking he could, and the result was back-breaking for that drive.

> I was in the middle of mentally processing that game as a loss on 2 different occasions. It's not often we win a game when that happens. I still don't know how we converted the 4th and 20. Trey Wolfe made a really big kick that I was giving about a 20% chance of going in. UH's defense in the later part of that game was extremely susceptible to Donovan's legs. Thank goodness. Because I'm not sure Donovan (or our OL?) could've won that game with his arm and decision making.

> Extremely frustrating to watch us try to run the ball. It seemed like A+ effort after A+ effort by our running backs only to result in 2.5 yard gains. Just took everything we had to get back to the line of scrimmage. Not being able to hand the ball off and run it, not being able to block pass rushers, and not having a QB making quick decisions is a serious problem.

> I'm going to do a rewatch breakdown and a longer breakdown in writing once I've got back home and have my wits about me. But that felt like an all-time heroic performance by the defense. We are 2-0 with a win over a ranked team. I'll take it. No questions asked. 2-0 is where we wanted to be. Even though I was confident this week (too confident), I thought all summer it would be very difficult to be 2-0. But here we are, with a real chance to do something now ("Doing something" = going 1-1 over the next two games). I think we will be around +7.5-point underdogs at NC State. And something around +7 against Texas at home.


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Ryan left it all out on the field in everything he did. In his honor, we bring you Fields of Gold, so that others facing bone cancer can keep on playing. A portion of proceeds from every case sold is donated to The Little Warrior Foundation.

The Little Warrior Foundation's mission is to fund & find a lasting cure for childhood cancer, with a specific focus on Ewing's Sarcoma.

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@Saynotobarefoot

That posted up w/ the shoulder to Smith.

Anyone happen to catch what they were saying to each other?

Pretty much the most Houston thing I saw all game.

This isn’t the typical uniform thread as some might think by the thread title.

I’ve noticed several players from a variety of teams both in college football and in the NFL have a different looking helmet this year rather than the traditional helmet. I think the brand may be Ridell. The face mask openings seem to different than the normal helmets. As mentioned, only a handful here and there seem to be wearing them.

Does this new design have something to do with concussion safety? Are the players wearing them prone to prior concussion diagnosis’? Or is it just a new style that some are going to for the look? I think Westin Wright may have been one of the players wearing this helmet for us yesterday. Maybe Dadrion as well.

Just random

We have to win on first down. Midway through the third quarter there was a graphic saying our average third down was 3rd and 10.
That's losing football.

I love that we are a pressure defense. I wish we recognized screens a tad quicker.

It seemed like some plays were to be had if Donovan was just a smidge quicker in his recognition and decisions. Some of the check down passes to the running backs seemed to be to be a tick too late. The difference between a one yard gain and a 5 yard gain to my eyes .

The underthrown int to Tharp was maybe 5+ yards underthrown. Sparkman was also open on the sideline on that play even farther away from possible safety help.

Oh man...I hate the slip on the 4th down run by Smith.

To this point I really love our defense.

Is Price injured? I've expected more from him.

We need to get those three turnovers we talk about. Usually that not only takes away their scoring opportunities but leaves us a short field. We really need that. Some defensive scores could really help us this year.

On the play before the pick 6 they brought 6 and every route but one was down field. Ended in a throw away to escape pressure.

The pick 6 was just terrible . He knew where he was going before he took the snap.

Nehiamia Martinez is fun to watch.

I said this in McKays thread about the OL. I would have loved to see us go straight at the undersized DL with some traditional running plays. Play action might have worked better if we had any success with that.

I love Donovan Smith. Kid has the exact temperament to learn from this and get better each game.

Did we run much RPO?

Brooks makes more hard cuts in the hole than most I can remember.. especially for a thicker guy.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

That is all

nm

Watching the game yesterday gave me an interesting thought about HS recruiting versus the portal.

I think UH has recruited like crap under Dana but they go hard in the portal. Wells did a similar strategy and got some of our better players like Wilson, Pearson, Schooler, etc.

After seeing Aggie lose with their #1 class it makes me think we need to keep a good handful of scholarships back. Love our HS class this year but it seems quite large and there are so many good players every year in the portal. I feel like I’d rather hold scholarships back from some of the last couple guys we are targeting honestly and transfers have used up that option.

Youth seems to get teams beat and staying older has a lot of advantages. Anyway, I just thought it was interesting that UH is able to get enough kids to fill holes and be competitive when we had a better roster. I think HS players who have developed for years help you win big every couple years but nobody wants rebuilding years to get there.

Here are the player takeaways following the Red Raiders' 33-30 win over #25 Houston this evening - featuring Kosi Eldridge, Tyree Wilson, Nehemiah Martinez, and Donovan Smith.


Kosi - "I thought we played really well. We fought through some things…but overall we I think we played pretty well, but we obviously can get better.”

Tyree – “Like Kosi said, I think we played pretty well. I think we have got a lot of things to clean up, but you know we wanted to finish the game off and that’s what we were looking for the whole game.”


On Donovan Smith’s touchdown run to win the game, and the emotions on the sideline that went with it…
Kosi – “Right before that play started, I literally said ‘In Donny I trust.’” I knew Donny was going to take me home, and I was telling him all game, ‘Donny take me home’, so it was good to see…”

Tyree expressed similar confidence in Smith to take the Red Raiders to the finish line…”as a defense we expected it because you know, last year he won the Iowa State game for us and he shines in big games. This was a big game against a ranked opponent and he’s a great quarterback.”



Kosi expressed extreme sureness in the defensive outlook moving forward.

“I think we have potentially not only the best defense in the league, but the best defense in the country. We’ve played a lot together, a lot of us are coming back and a lot of us are old, so we have a lot of confidence in us.”

Tyree – “Like I said at the beginning of the season, I expect our defense to be the best defense in the league, and we’re going to keep doing it each week to be the best defense in the Big 12.”

“When the offense makes a bad play, we got their back. We’re going to hold up and hold (Houston) to a field goal.”


On the Red Raiders’ 2-0 start…

Tyree – “Coming into the season, we expected to be 2-0. We expected to win every out of conference game, so it doesn’t mean anything, we’re just going to keep building off of it and slingshot into the Big 12 Conference games.”

Kosi – “Like you said, everything is going according to plan, nothing is changing…”

After Wilson and Eldridge shared their final thoughts, Donovan Smith and Nehemiah Martinez took center stage.



Martinez on his touchdown catch from Smith, “It was kind of a big deal because my grandpa passed away earlier this year. Two days ago, the 8th, was his birthday, so I really wanted to get one for him.”

Smith – “From my standpoint, just going through my reads, get my first read and he got up and made a great catch for me. That’s what he does and he’s not easy to tackle, he did what he did and scored a touchdown.”

Smith on his game winning touchdown in 2OT…” Coach Kittley always says ‘hey, always use your legs.’ I was going through my reads and saw everyone dropping back. I saw a hole open up so I just saw it, took it and ran for it.”

Oh the 4th and 20 completion in the first overtime to keep the Red Raiders in the game, Smith credited his offensive line and Jerand Bradley for keeping the play alive and allowing him to scramble and throw for a first down.



Smith and Martinez both consoled Bradley after his crucial drop in the endzone and encouraged him to keep his head up and look forward to the next play.

Smith – “I was just like ‘hey man, you’re good. You’ve got nothing to worry about…we’ve got you, we’re going to get the ball back so there’s nothing to worry about.”

Martinez echoed Smith. “I just said, ‘You’re going to get another chance to make a play. Whenever you make that play, most people are going to forget about that drop you had.”



Smith explained that Kittley and McGuire give him the freedom to do what he wants in regard to a couple of checked plays in which Smith ran with the ball. “It goes both ways communicating. If coach Kittley saw something he let me know, and If I saw something I let him know. I check it and Coach Kittley goes with it.”

Oh what he can improve going into NC State, Smith said he’s going to watch film with Kittley first and then go from there.

Smith credits his faith in God for allowing him to bounce back from tough plays and not get too down on himself. “For me, I’m a real spiritual guy and come from a spiritual family. The biggest thing I’ve been practicing on is to ‘let go and let God’…I just take a second to take a deep breath and say ‘God I’m giving this to you. That wasn’t the best play I had, but I have to be there for the team, so just give me strength and the will to keep working and fight for this team.”

Listened to Coach Gerlich talk about the women’s team at the 1923 society breakfast. Biggest attendance I’ve seen there. She dropped some nuggets on challenges the first two years, NIL, and what she’s looking to do this year on offense.

Sports wise - Tech won against a top 25 team in 2OT at home. Meanwhile UT, UH, Baylor, and A&M lost.

Met miss Debbie McGuire before the game. She was amazingly nice! And she’s designed a shirt…

Met Spencer Tillman this morning on the way to the airport. He’s a HUGE McGuire, DeReuter, and Kittley fan. Called them rockstars (and repeated it on twitter). Said he loved the run fitments on our defense and thought we were undersized but playing like a top 25 D. I’ve had problems with his takes on Tech in the past — but in person the dude could not have been nicer.

Plus got to spend some time with our son (soph) - and he and his GF rushed the field.

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I don't know if he was taking it seriously, trolling or what, but this was his four CFP participants in the ESPN College Football Preview Show. It was dumb then, and even dumber now.

They get paid handsomely for their opinions, which are supposed to be informed opinions. I don't watch much GameDay, but basically his contribution was to cackle at anything funny. I assume it still is. His constant "Coach Handsome" references to Kliff got old too.

Some of them were there in front of us standing watching the game. KO specifically was great with all the fans coming up to him. Every kid and little old white lady who wanted a pic he smiled and obliged. Steffe was there to which was cool. However the MVP of the situation was this guys GF. I couldn’t tell who he was:


The girl that was with him was…..damn.

Way back when football was kinda fun I put a way too long blog post together for every game. Then I got busy and we mostly sucked, so I quit. But last week it seemed people were wanting posts like this, so I thought I'd put one out again.

1) Go Home Game, You're Drunk.

Seriously, in the first half Houston tried to give us the game and we did nothing with it. Then we tried to give it to them. We easily could have won this by 21. We also could have lost it by 14+. It was beyond weird. But at the end of the day we get to go out with a W and are now set to be at worst 2-1 going into conference play. I think most would have taken that before the season started.

2) This defense...

Yeah, they should have had a couple of picks they dropped. But other than that, they played a heck of a game. Houston scored on a pick 6 and two drives that started with picks. One of them was 7 plays for 12 yards. The other one was 4 plays for 0 yards. Their only TD drive was made by a 63 yard pass that should have been called for OPI. Houston had 2 drives of 7 plays and 1 of 8, that was the extent of it. The final score obscures it a bit and rescues the day for the Overs, but our defense dominated them all night.

3) Who is Donovan Smith?

I don't think we have any idea. Or maybe he is Jekyll and Hyde and that's just it. End of the day, credit to him he clinched the game on his run. He had some other great runs. He had some great throws, including two huge plays that ended in drops (The TD and hitting the WR in the arm on a go route on 3rd and long on our own goal line). But he also had a lot of plays that were head scratchers. Yes, the OL struggled. Yes, he is still young and should keep getting better. But we've absolutely got to have more consistency from the position to win 6+ games.

4) How's that 54% working out for ya?

Dana said last week the team that got the ball first in OT wins 54% of the time. I don't have access to where he is pulling that from, but that seems to be a stat in the line of "there are three types of lies..." What is the context? How often was the team that expected to win the one that won in OT? How many times was it the underdog? Either way, he did it again. Didn't hurt him the first go around, but the second OT we got to pick and chose to be on defense first. Seems like the 46% worked out pretty well for us. Bet Dana wishes he had made a different 4th down decision...

5) We've got some problems on the OL

We all saw it tonight. Houston has legit dudes at DL so we weren't going to win every snap, but they made it a long night. Losing Wright certainly isn't going to help moving forward (read he got put on a cart, so that's not a great sign). Our pass blocking was bad. Our run blocking was probably worse. Going off #3, I don't think our best recipe is having Smith throw it 57 times a game. That's a lot to ask from any QB. But we may not have a choice. Unfortunate, because Brooks and Thompson are flat studs, which we saw several times tonight despite not getting much help.

….with this type of awesome video coverage
Dynamic halftime analysis
(Takes a while to load)

Frost is out tomorrow if he loses to GSU, right?

??

This is a list of known nonfootball visitors this weekend.
MBB Jazz Gardner 6-11, C Santa Clarita West Ranch, CA
WBB Loghan Johnson 5-11, G Houston Christian
WBB Achol Magot 6-7, C Southern Arizona Prep
T&F Donovan Bradley hurdles Humble Summer Creek
T&F Adan Lewis sprints Danbury HS Texas