Texas Tech, Oregon clash New Year's Day in Capital One Orange Bowl

Thursday, January 1

Miami, Fla.

11 a.m. CT

Texas Tech Athletics

No. 5 Oregon

Texas Tech, Oregon clash New Year's Day in Capital One Orange Bowl

December 22, 2025 | Football

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#4 TEXAS TECH vs. #5 OREGON
College Football Playoff Quarterfinal, Capital One Orange Bowl
Miami Gardens, Fla. | Hard Rock Stadium (64,767)
Jan. 1, 2026
ESPN | 11 a.m. CST

GAME LINKS

LUBBOCK, Texas – After a historic season of firsts, No. 4 Texas Tech (12-1, 8-1 Big 12) will add another one on New Year's Day with its first appearance in the College Football Playoff, taking on No. 5 Oregon (12-1, 8-1 Big Ten) at the Capital One Orange Bowl in South Florida. The Red Raiders earned an opening-round bye in the CFP bracket following their 34-7 Big 12 Championship Game win against BYU, for its first Big 12 title in program history and its first outright conference crown since 1955. The Red Raiders enter the Capital One Orange Bowl having already earned the most wins in a single season in school history.

The national television broadcast on ESPN will feature play-by-play commentator Joe Tessitore and analyst Jesse Palmer in the booth; meanwhile, Stormy Buonantony and Katie George will be reporting from the sideline. The broadcast can also be accessed using the ESPN App, from any desktop or laptop computer, personal cellular device, or television streaming service.

Texas Tech Sports Network will also broadcast the game over 46 affiliates throughout the state of Texas and New Mexico, as Brian Jensen will have the call alongside analyst John Harris and sideline reporter Chris Level. The home radio broadcast can be heard on SiriusXM channel 84, while the national radio broadcast featuring Wes Durham, Chase Daniel, and Tori Petry will air on SiriusXM channel 80. The Varsity app can also be used to find the home radio broadcast by searching for "Texas Tech".

STRENGTH vs. STRENGTH IN MIAMI

Texas Tech and Oregon will both make their first appearance in the Capital One Orange Bowl in a matchup that pits two of the most balanced teams in the country against each other.
The Red Raiders and Ducks both rank in the top 11 nationally for scoring offense and defense, as well as total offense and defense, with Tech currently in the top five of all four categories.
The two schools also rank as the most-explosive offenses in college football, with Oregon leading the FBS with 91 plays of 20-plus yards, one more than the Red Raiders.

THE NATION'S LEADER IN TAKEAWAYS

Texas Tech will look to slow a potent Oregon offense led by quarterback Dante Moore, a potential No. 1 overall pick in next spring's NFL Draft, with a disruptive front seven anchored by unanimous first-team All-Americans Jacob Rodriguez and David Bailey.
Rodriguez, the winner of the Bednarik Award and Bronko Nagurski Trophy (among others), has helped power a Red Raiders defense that leads the FBS with 31 takeaways and has pushed Texas Tech to become just the fifth team since 1936 to record 12 wins by at least 20 points in a season.

A DOMINANT 2025 SEASON

Texas Tech's dominance this season has placed the Red Raiders in a rare category in college football history. The Red Raiders are only the fifth team in the Associated Press era (since 1936) to record 12 or more wins by 20-plus points in a season, joining the likes of Nebraska (1971), Florida State (2013), Alabama (2018) and Clemson (2018).
Of that group, only the Red Raiders and Alabama recorded their 12th win by at least 20 points prior to the bowl game. Each of the previous four teams to win by that margin at this rate has either finished as the national champion or the runner-up in those seasons.

FROM A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Texas Tech set a school record with its 10th win by at least 20 points against UCF. The Red Raiders snapped the previous school record of nine that was set in 1953 when Texas Tech ultimately finished 12-1 overall. The dominance Texas Tech has shown this season is somewhat unprecedented as the Red Raiders have had only three other seasons with seven or more wins by at least 20 points prior to this season.
Texas Tech's current average points margin of 31.5 points is on pace to snap the single-season record that dates back to 1953 when the Red Raiders outscored opponents to the tune of 29.6 points per game. Since joining the Southwest Conference in 1960, Texas Tech's highest average point differential is a 20.6 margin from 2005.

THE BIG 12 CHAMPIONS

Texas Tech secured its 12th conference title in program history and its first as a Big 12 member with its win over previously-No. 11 BYU in the Edward Jones Big 12 Championship. The victory marked Texas Tech's first outright conference title since the Red Raiders were champions of the Border Conference in 1995. Texas Tech won nine Border Conference titles before departing for the Southwest Conference beginning with the 1960 football season.
The Red Raiders shared two Southwest Conference championships during his 30-plus years in the league, splitting the league crown with Houston in 1976 and then with the likes of Texas, Baylor and TCU in 1994. Since joining the Big 12 Conference in 1996, the Red Raiders had only shared a South Division crown in 2008.

THE WINNINGEST BIG 12 PROGRAM

Texas Tech is the winningest Big 12 program over Joey McGuire's four seasons as head coach winning 24 regular-season games already against conference opponents. McGuire has returned the Red Raiders to being one of the Big 12's most competitive teams as Texas Tech was 5-4 in each of his first two seasons, then 6-3 in 2024 and 8-1 this season.
Texas Tech's 24 regular-season wins in Big 12 play are the most in the conference over the past four seasons, regardless of league affiliation. The Red Raiders ended the 2025 regular season with one more win than both Kansas State (23) and TCU (23) and three more than Utah (21).
Prior to his debut 2022 season, Texas Tech had not recorded a winning conference record since 2009 as the Red Raiders were a combined 36-71 (.336) in the 12 years before McGuire's arrival with no seasons of at least a .500 record.
The Red Raiders are joined by Kansas State as the only two Big 12 programs to boast an above-.500 conference record in each of the past four seasons, regardless of league affiliation.

RED RAIDERS IN BOWL GAMES

While this may be Texas Tech's first appearance in the College Football Playoff, the Red Raider roster is no stranger to bowl games.
Texas Tech has 52 players on its roster who have played in a bowl game prior this season, including 19 who have played in multiple bowl games.
Of that group, three Red Raiders will be playing in their fourth career bowl game, a list that includes wide receiver Coy Eakin, linebacker Jacob Rodriguez and outside linebacker Terrell Tilmon.

NUMBERS TO KNOW

1: Texas Tech is the only team to rank in the top five in the FBS this season in scoring offense, scoring defense and takeaways per game. Florida was the last team to do so in 2008.
4: Texas Tech boasted four All-America selections from its defense, including a pair of unanimous first team selections in David Bailey and Jacob Rodriguez.
6: Texas Tech has held opponents to single-digit point totals six times this season, which matches the most for the Red Raiders since doing so seven times in 1946.
11: Texas Tech is 11-0 this season when senior quarterback Behren Morton starts in 2025.
28: Texas Tech has already set its single-season record with 28 field goals this season, which currently ranks leads the FBS. That includes 22 alone from Stone Harrington.

INSIDE THE SERIES

This will be the fourth all-time meeting between Texas Tech and Oregon and the first since the two schools met as non-conference opponents early in the 2023 season. The Ducks have won all three games in the series, topping the Red Raiders, 38-30, in Lubbock two years ago, as well as in a home-and-home series during the 1991-92 seasons.
Texas Tech is scheduled to make a return trip to Oregon early in the 2033 season to round out the home-and-home non-conference series. The two schools agreed to push back the return visit to Eugene - originally scheduled for the 2024 season - in order to allow Oregon to preserve its annual rivalry game with Oregon State following its departure to the Big Ten Conference.
The loss to Oregon early in the 2023 season marked only Texas Tech's third to a non-conference opponent at home dating back to 2000. The Red Raiders are an impressive 53-3 in non-conference home games during that span with the lone losses coming to the Ducks as well as Arkansas in 2014 and N.C. State in 2002.
The Ducks previously swept a home-and-home series with the Red Raiders during the 1991 and 1992 seasons, topping Texas Tech, 28-13, in Lubbock, followed by a 16-13 victory the next year in Eugene. The Red Raiders had an opportunity to shock Oregon in the 1992 matchup after driving 49 yards in the closing minutes to reach the 25-yard line. Texas Tech opted to go for a fourth-down attempt instead of a game-tying potential field goal; however, it eventually fell on the road after Robert Hall's pass to Derrell Mitchell toward the end zone was broken up with 22 seconds remaining.

OREGON CAREER NOTABLES

Texas Tech's roster looks quite different since the last time these two schools met, as only eight Red Raiders remain who played in the 2023 contest against Oregon. Of that group, only two were starters in linebacker Ben Roberts and defensive back Brenden Jordan. The remaining group of participants included outside linebackers Charles Esters III and Terrell Tilmon, defensive backs Chapman Lewis and Chief Collins, as well as linebackers Bryce Ramirez and Wesley Smith.
Roberts made his first career start in the 2023 meeting against the Ducks, finishing with 12 tackles in the loss, including 1.5 for a loss and a shared sack to go along with a forced fumble. The performance marked his first with double-digit tackles in Roberts' career as he eventually was named the Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year and a second team Freshman All-American by The Athletic.
Esters was Texas Tech's third-leading tackler against the Ducks, finishing with seven stops, which remains his career high to this day. Jordan and Lewis, meanwhile, were only true freshmen that season as Lewis made his collegiate debut against the Ducks, while Jordan added five tackles and a pass breakup in only his second career start.
Texas Tech was without two of its mainstays on this year's roster in the last meeting versus Oregon as linebacker Jacob Rodriguez and wide receiver Coy Eakin were both out with injuries. Behren Morton was the backup quarterback for the Red Raiders at the time and did not play against the Ducks.
Three of Texas Tech's transfer additions this season have prior experience against the Ducks in outside linebackers David Bailey and Romello Height as well as cornerback Tarrion Grant. Height recorded one tackle while with USC in a 2023 meeting against the Ducks, while Grant had the same total a year ago while at Purdue. Bailey combined for nine tackles in two previous meetings against Oregon with six coming as a true freshman at Stanford in 2022 and then the other three in the 2023 meeting between the two schools.