Texas Tech football takes aim at No. 7 TCU in battle for The Saddle

Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire was reminded at the start of the week there's a traveling trophy on the line when Tech and TCU get together in football. To the winner goes The Saddle.

The two programs played for it from 1961-70, the original version of The Saddle provided by the Avalanche-Journal and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. That one disappeared, and a new one was designed to replace it in 2017.

"So I'm fired up about that," McGuire said. "See if we can't get that and get (special teams coach) Kenny Perry on The Saddle if we can bring that back to Lubbock."

Easier said than done, on both counts. The Red Raiders have won on three of their past five trips to Fort Worth, but the Horned Frogs are undefeated, with hopes of making the College Football Playoff. They sit No. 7 in the CFP and in The Associated Press Top 25.

Not that Sonny Dykes is keeping close tabs on it. When reminded Tuesday during his weekly press conference that the season's first CFP rankings came out that night, the TCU coach seemed unaware.

"I don't know that that's going to affect anything," Dykes said. "I think our guys understand that for us to be in the conversation, we have to win, so why worry about anything else other than winning? Otherwise, you'll be out of the conversation quickly."

Tech (4-4, 2-3 in the Big 12) and TCU (8-0, 5-0) play at 11 a.m. Saturday at Amon Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, the site of this week's Fox Big Noon Kickoff pre-game show.

The Horned Frogs have lived dangerously. They've trailed in the second quarter or later in each of their past four victories, using the third-ranked scoring offense in the FBS to make up for a 73rd-ranked scoring defense. They rallied from a 30-16 fourth-quarter deficit to beat Oklahoma State and a 28-10 second-quarter deficit to overcome Kansas State.

To keep their perfect season going, smoother starts seem a must.

"We're going to need to — I think this week in particular," Dykes said, "because these (Tech) guys kind of score points in bunches. So we're going to need to start faster than we have. I think we can. I think we will."

Dykes didn't like some of what he saw in TCU's 41-31 victory last week, another narrow escape given that it was a 34-31 game with four minutes left. Dykes said his team showed "some symptoms of an illness" that began in practice last week.

"I did a poor job of making sure that we did things to our standard during the week," he said. "I think it bled over to Saturday, so we've addressed those things with our players. I think we've kind of refocused. Normally, when you do that, you lose a game. We were fortunate enough to win a game and have a chance to tighten things back up a little bit. We've got to get more stops early in the game, and I'm confident that we will."

Saturday will be the first time Dykes has faced Tech as a head coach, though he was an analyst on the TCU staff in 2017 when the Horned Frogs won 27-3 in Lubbock.

Spike Dykes was 82-67-1 in 13-plus seasons as the Red Raiders' head coach. Sonny Dykes, in his 13th season, is 79-63 as head coach at Louisiana Tech, California, SMU and TCU.

Dykes said going against his hometown school, as well as his, his father's and his brother's old team, doesn't mean more than other Big 12 games.

"Not at all. I mean, zero," he said. "Probably should. I'm probably devoid of whatever those feelings are, just having been around and been in this profession long enough where you just kind of learn to (treat it as) kind of a nameless, faceless opponent.

"I'm certainly not trying to take anything away from Texas Tech. It's just kind of the approach you have to take. It probably should mean more, but it means absolutely nothing more, honestly."

The Red Raiders want to bounce back from their worst showing of the season, a 45-17 home loss to Baylor in which the Bears scored the game's last 21 points. Tony Bradford said the Red Raiders have to "get back to work, fix the mistakes and then go battle."

"The season isn't over," the Tech defensive tackle said. "We understand how our performance may have looked last weekend, and we know we need to correct to fix it, and that's exactly what we're going to do."

College football

Who: Texas Tech at TCU

When: 11 a.m. Saturday

Where: Amon Carter Stadium, Fort Worth

Records: Texas Tech 4-4, 2-3 in the Big 12; TCU 8-0, 5-0

Rankings (CFP/AP/coaches poll): Texas Tech unranked in both; TCU 7/7/7

Line: TCU by 8. Over-under: 69 points

TV: Fox

Radio: FM 97.3, FM 100.7, FM 106.5, AM 950 in Lubbock. FM 95.7, AM 1440 in Amarillo.

Satellite radio: Sirius 158, XM 200

Follow Along: Follow @AJ_DonWilliams and @cmsilvajr on Twitter for live game updates, with post-game recap and interviews to follow at www.lubbockonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football takes aim at No. 7 TCU