ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — BYU coach Kalani Sitake and Texas Tech's Joey McGuire have shared a few meals together, and they've talked about their teams making the Big 12 championship game.
“If you want me at my best, Joey understands this, it's usually when we're eating,” said Sitake, the former Cougars fullback now in his 10th season as their coach. "If you want to talk about manifesting ... we talked about playing each other in the championship game. We manifested it, and now here we are.”
They meet for the Big 12 title Saturday, when the Red Raiders (11-1, No. 4 CFP) are a virtual lock for a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff no matter the outcome. For the Big 12 to get a second team into the playoff when the bracket comes out Sunday, the Cougars (11-1, No. 11 CFP) have to beat Tech this time, something they weren't able to do four weeks ago in Lubbock.
Texas Tech, one of six teams to be part of all 30 Big 12 seasons, is in the championship game for the first time after investing millions of dollars in the transfer portal — this is the 24th title game with none between 2011-16. This is also the first in the Big 12 for BYU, which joined the league in 2023 after 12 seasons as an independent. The Cougars' last conference title game was the 1998 WAC game they lost to Air Force.
“Two very physical teams. I think the two best teams in the conference are playing,” McGuire said. “He's a players' coach like me. He loves his guys and and I’m just honored and fired up, so impressed with his team. I’m sitting here watching his last few games since we played, and they just keep getting better and better.”
The first meeting
Texas Tech won 29-7 on Nov. 8 in one of the most-hyped games ever on the Lubbock campus. The game was spotlighted with ESPN's “College GameDay” airing from there for the three hours before kickoff of what was the Big 12's first conference matchup of top 10 teams since 2021.
With league rushing leader LJ Martin (102.4 yards per game) hampered by a shoulder injury that day, the Cougars had season lows for total yards (255) and points. They had three turnovers, with Tech standout linebacker Jacob Rodriguez having an interception and a fumble recovery while also doing a Heisman pose. BYU trailed 26-0 before true freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier (2,593 yards passing) threw a 6-yard TD pass to Chase Roberts midway through the fourth quarter.
BYU hasn't been held to fewer than 24 points any other time this season. Texas Tech scored on six of seven trips inside the 20, but that included five field goals.
“It's hard to beat somebody twice. ... Your team’s why is very important on beating somebody twice,” McGuire said, who told his coaches to “really dig in to the first game of where we missed the mark and some stuff where they could take advantage of us, where we could take advantage of them.”
That “why” for the Red Raiders is winning their first outright Big 12 title. The closest they have been was a three-way tie with Oklahoma and Texas for the South Division lead in 2008, but they missed making the championship game on the tiebreaker.
Healed up
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Martin, who is from El Paso, Texas, and was recruited by the Red Raiders, has rushed for 405 yards and six touchdowns in BYU’s three games since leaving Lubbock.
Red Raiders quarterback Behren Morton (2,248 yards passing with 20 TDs and four interceptions) missed two games, including not playing in their loss at Arizona State, and got banged up before halftime in two others. He has been back the last four games, with an open date mixed in, and in the past two games completed 39 of 51 passes (76.5%) with four TDs and no interceptions.
“Our quarterback’s feeling as good as he’s felt all year long,” McGuire said. “Whenever Behren plays well, we play a really high level.”
Staying around a while
Both McGuire and Sitake got new contracts this week.
Sitake had conversations with Penn State and was considered a top candidate for that vacancy until he agreed Tuesday to a long-term contract extension with the Cougars, where he is 83-44 with four 10-win seasons.
McGuire, 34-17 in his fourth season, got a new contract that will pay him $6.5 million next season with $100,000 annual increases to $7.1 million by 2032. That replaces a six-year deal he got at the end of the 2022 season, also with $100,000 increases each year that would have topped out at $4.6 million in 2028.
Unique matchups
There has not been a repeat matchup since the Big 12 title game resumed in 2017, after the league scrapped divisions. Oklahoma made four consecutive appearances from 2017-20 but faced a different team each time. In the five games since, only Oklahoma State has appeared twice, losing in 2021 and 2023.
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