LUBBOCK – Run a comb through the Texas Tech Red Raiders during their Saturday 2026 season opener against Abilene Christian University and what did you get?

Pretty much one major tangle is all to straighten out.

After an off-season of drama which included a betting ordeal surrounding quarterback Brendan Sorsby and Tech rising to the second biggest villain in college football behind Lane Kiffin because of its NIL prowess, the Red Raiders finally played football and played it well – although conservative on offense – in handing outmanned and scrappy Abilene Christian University a 33-10 loss before a sold out crowd of 60,200 at newly named Galaxy Stadium.

The one major tangle for Tech was settling for three field goals when reaching the red zone instead of cashing in on touchdowns. Also, Tech head coach Joey McGuire did not like the self-inflicted wounds like a 12-men on the field penalty giving ACU the ball back after a punt.

“The things that we struggled on last year we struggled again tonight,” McGuire said. “Mainly it was our impatience on offense. We had to kick three field goals in the red zone and one just out of the red zone. That was frustrating. … then 12-men on the field is inexcusable … but the great thing about all those is we get to fix them.”

Here’s five things you need to know about the win.

Will the Thrill is back

With Sorsby no longer in the picture as Tech’s quarterback, much of the off-season chatter was how junior quarterback Will Hammond will handle the starting duties.

Hammond suffered a torn ACL last October against Oklahoma State. He was filling in for an injured Tech starting QB Behren Morton at the time.

Hammond showed no signs of being slowed by the ACL injury and while he didn’t sling it downfield much at all settling for short passes his numbers were impressive completing 26 of 33 passes for 298 yards with one interception and one touchdown pass.

Hammond wears a brace and said his knee felt better than ever. He explained that ACU did a nice job defensively of keeping everything in front of them, thus, the shorter passes.

“I thought their defensive coordinator did a really good job playing deep coverage all game,” Hammond said. “I thought we did a really good job of not showing a ton into the offense this week. That was important for us just as the season continues to go on. We didn’t put much on tape today scheme-wise.”

McGuire was pleased with Hammond’s performance. Hammond is known by his teammates as that guy who: ‘Nobody loves football more than Will Hammond.’ So McGuire knew he had to remind Hammond before the game of a simple task.

“I thought Will really did a good job,” McGuire said. “I told him before the game, and I know Mack [Leftwich] did too, but I said, ‘First, be Will Hammond and take a deep breath,’ because you got to imagine how just geeked up that kid was to play tonight.”

Hammond’s interception arrived on a play out of the pocket and he said he has to get better at making the decision to run for the first down instead of trying a pass like that. But more than anything, Hammond was simply glad to be back playing.

 “It was a good feeling,” Hammond said. “It was fun to get out there. I think the sheet said there were like 60,200 fans today, so it’s fun to get out there. We got a great fan base, and running out for the first time is special.”

Local flavor on display

The Amarillo-area was represented on both sidelines during Saturday’s game.

For Abilene Christian it was both on the coaching staff and with players.

Tascosa’s all-time leading rusher Joseph Plunk is a defensive assistant for the Wildcats and coached from the press box.

Plunk played his college ball at Texas Tech and said “I love a lot of those guys over there. This was good for us. We can get better from it.”

Plunk is used to playing and coaching games from the sidelines, not in the comfort and quiet of the press box coaching room.

“It’s different,” said Plunk, who works with the defensive backs. “It’s so quiet. You don’t get the energy from the crowd noise in there. I’m really happy and enjoying (coaching at ACU).”

Kaden Carr and Colter Lynch started on the ACU offensive line. Carr played his high school ball at Amarillo High and Lubbock Cooper and the junior made the start at right guard. Lynch is in his second year of starting for the Wildcats at center and played his high school ball at Panhandle and Lubbock Cooper.

For Texas Tech, one of the most famous names in Tascosa football lore – Krush Johnson – wore number 91 on Saturday and went through pre-game warmups with the defensive line and then stood on the sideline for the game. Johnson is a freshman who graduated early from Tascosa last December and the 6-foot-2, 300-pounder is likely to redshirt the entire Tech season.

Galaxy Stadium

Any fans from the Amarillo-area attending a Tech game this year will find their seat and see a new name for the place known as The Jones – forever.

It’s now known as Galaxy Stadium.

The name galaxy stadium (all lower case letters) is displayed on the playing field as well as on the stadium wall.

During Saturday’s game Tech officials pulled off a tremendous drone show starting with the words Galaxy Stadium in white lettering hovering above the stadium. That brought boos from the crowd. Then suddenly above the white letters popped up drones spelling The Jones in red lettering and the place went crazy.

Defense! Defense! Defense!

Although a 33-10 score looks like a lopsided game, this one felt even more lopsided because of the way Tech’s defense frustrated and shut down ACU’s offense most of the game.

With Tech settling for shortish field goals of 23, 28 and 33 yards, if those were touchdowns the score would have been much more lopsided because ACU’s only touchdown was an Alex Broome 98-yard kickoff return with 2:29 remaining in the game.

Tech’s defense limited ACU to 75 rushing yards on 29 attempts for an average of 2.9 yards per carry. The passing game was not much better for ACU as the Wildcats quarterback John David Black was 18-of-32 for 119 yards, the longest completion going for 18 yards.

So in the end Tech outgained ACU in total yards by a hefty 471 to 194.

Jamond Mathis was impressive at defensive end leading the Red Raiders in tackles with six, including 2 ½ sacks.

Run, John, Run

Texas Tech senior linebacker John Curry came up with the Red Raiders first interception of the 2026 season on the opening play of the third quarter and although the Lubbock Coronado graduate was thrilled with play, how he was tackled kind of rankled him.

Curry did a nice job dropping in coverage intercepting ACU quarterback John David Black at the Wildcats 28-yard line and found the sideline returning the pick 15 yards to the ACU 13-yard line.

Tackling Curry from behind and out of bounds was ACU right tackle Luke Roaten. During a replay of Curry’s interception on the jumbo screen several of Curry’s teammates and him were seen on the sidelines watching it and breaking into laughter after the tackle.

“I thought I was faster than that,” Curry said with a smile in the press conference after the game. “Getting caught by an offensive lineman.”

Curry has strong ties to the Amarillo-area as his mom, Jolee Luce, played her high school basketball at Canyon High and Texas Tech as Jolee Ayers. Jolee’s dad and John’s grandfather is the late, great John Ayers who started on the 49ers offensive line blocking for NFL legend Joe Montana.

Curry finished with three tackles, one pass breakup along with the interception setting up a field goal for the Red Raiders.

Next up

Texas Tech returns to action next Saturday visiting Oregon State (0-1) in a scheduled 6:30 p.m. kickoff.

Photo gallery by Roy Wheeler: