LUBBOCK, Texas — Will Hammond completed his first 14 pass attempts and finished 26-of-33 for a career-high 298 yards in his first start since tearing the ACL in his right knee. No. 12 Texas Tech beat Abilene Christian 33-10 on Saturday night at Galaxy Stadium in front of a sellout crowd of 60,229.
Hammond’s previous start came Oct. 25, 2025, against Oklahoma State, the game he left with the knee injury. Saturday was the fourth start of his career. Through the first quarter he was 9-for-9 for 85 yards, and he connected on his next five throws in the second quarter before his 15th attempt was intercepted. His lone touchdown pass covered 64 yards to Malcolm Simmons with 2:45 left in the game.
Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said Abilene Christian was not giving the Red Raiders much down the field, and that Hammond drove the offense the length of the field before it stalled inside the 20.
“Minus that one where he forced the ball, I thought that he did a really good job,” McGuire said. “One, he had a great pocket to throw from. We didn’t give up a sack. And I thought the offensive line played really well in the passing game, because there were times that Will did a really good job of getting to a second and third read. We did have a touchdown. If he would have got to Kenny and stayed on him a little bit longer, we had a touchdown going into our north end zone. And I think that was one of the first field goals we had to kick.”
“But overall, you’re talking about a guy that has a limited, I think that’s his fourth start of his career, and the bowl game and Arizona State game, Oklahoma State game, and then tonight,” McGuire continued. “I could be wrong. But I was really proud of him. I told him before the game, I said, first, be Will Hammond and take a deep breath, because you’ve got to imagine how geeked up that kid was to play tonight, to be the starting quarterback for Texas Tech and to go through everything he’s gone through in his rehab and everything. He was really geeked up. I thought he did a really good job controlling his emotions.”
Texas Tech took the opening kickoff and covered 75 yards in seven plays, with Quinten Joyner scoring on a 14-yard run with 12:14 left in the first quarter. It was his first carry as a Red Raider. Joyner tore an ACL in the preseason of 2025 and missed the year, and his last touchdown before Saturday came Oct. 12, 2024, for USC against Penn State. He carried 10 times for 43 yards, matching a career high in attempts.
J’Koby Williams finished the next drive with a 5-yard touchdown run at the 2:24 mark, capping a 15-play, 87-yard march that ran more than seven minutes off the clock.
Saturday was Joyner’s first game action in a year.
“I had a few tears before the game,” Joyner said. “Like, it’s been a whole year since I’ve been on the field again. But it felt good, though. It felt good to be back with the guys and having fun again.”
Williams set a career high with 8 receptions. The last Texas Tech running back to catch more in a game was Tahj Brooks, who had nine on Nov. 23, 2024, against West Virginia. Williams led the Red Raiders with 141 all-purpose yards, including a team-high 71 rushing yards and 13 kickoff return yards.
Red Zone Trips End in Stone Harrington Field Goals
Texas Tech gained 471 total yards and did not score a touchdown between the first quarter and the final three minutes. Stone Harrington made all four of his field goal attempts, from 23, 28, 33, and 45 yards. It was the third game of his career with four or more field goals, and he opened his fifth-year season 4-for-4.
Hammond said Abilene Christian’s defensive coordinator played deep coverage all night, and that the Wildcats’ plan was to make Texas Tech dink and dunk down the field.
“I think we can be a lot cleaner in the red zone, and it really starts with me,” Hammond said. “Micah was open on the back end line. Kenny was open on the back end line on the same play. Coy ended up popping open on the play where I checked it down to Cam Dickey. So all those drives we ended up with field goals, those are all touchdown drives. So it really starts with me in the red zone, being honed in on what their scheme is and me just going out there and executing. Our guys are going to get open. Our coaches are going to call a great play. So it’s just up to me to go out there and deliver.”
McGuire said the offense scored on its first possession and then got impatient, and that there were snaps where Texas Tech needed to hand the ball off and get behind the offensive line instead of throwing.
“It’s definitely something that came up last year, it came up tonight, that we have to fix,” McGuire explained. “Whenever you can’t score in the red zone, now all of a sudden Leyton Stone doesn’t get as many snaps as he should. And Chase Campbell doesn’t get as many snaps as good. We don’t see Kirk Francis as much as we wanted to. So whenever you don’t score in the red zone at times like that, and then when you’re in really close games, that’s where you lose games, not scoring touchdowns in the red zone.”
Texas Tech rushed for 173 yards. McGuire said the negative runs came when Abilene Christian blitzed into the outside zone concepts and chased the play from behind, and that he expected more than 173 yards on the ground.
Hammond said he would rather avoid running when he can, because it keeps him healthy, but that he will not shy away from scrambling in the red zone if the yards are there.
“That was my first rep really getting out the pocket this game,” Hammond explained. “And I’ve got to get back to game habits in that scenario. Just run, go get five yards, get out of bounds, no need to force that ball. So that was definitely forced. That was kind of a game one mistake and I’ll clean that up, and coach knows I’ll be better on that.”
Hammond wore a brace on the knee and said he will keep wearing it for the measure of safety it gives him on hits, even though he does not feel he needs it.
“The knee felt great, which was awesome,” Hammond said. “Those few reps where I was able to run around, I felt great. So, grateful for all the trainers getting me back and excited to be out there able to run around.”
Jamond Mathis and John Curry Lead the Texas Tech Defense
Abilene Christian finished with 194 total yards. Quarterback John David Black completed 18-of-32 passes for 119 yards with an interception and was sacked three times, and the Wildcats ran for 75 yards. Two seasons ago in Lubbock, Abilene Christian threw for 506 yards and lost 52-51 in overtime.
Jamond Mathis recorded a career-high 2.5 sacks and a team-high 6 tackles. His previous single-game high was 1.5, which he reached six times across stints at Kent State and Southern Illinois. Mathis played the dog position with Trey White and LaDamion Guyton unavailable.
Mathis said the outside linebacker room is a brotherhood, and that White and Guyton push him to be great even while they are not playing.
“It’s definitely a good game in my career, but I feel like also on that end I had a couple of busts that I could have got better,” Mathis said. “I could have did a couple things better and I probably would have had more. So I feel like just being able to expand on what I’m doing right now and just get better overall as the weeks go.”
McGuire said the defensive front rotated well without both of those players, and that Jayden Cofield made plays and Bryce Butler recorded a tackle for loss.
“The thing tonight that was awesome is he took advantage of his snaps, being Trey, because that’s Trey’s position, that dog position,” McGuire said. “And we played Adam Trick some there, and then we bumped him back to the field so we could play Jamond and Adam together. And I thought he took advantage. And whenever you take advantage like that, you just get more snaps.”
John Curry intercepted Abilene Christian’s first play from scrimmage of the second half, the second interception of his career. His first came Nov. 30, 2024, against West Virginia, on the final play of the game. Harrington’s 28-yard field goal followed four plays later at the 13:03 mark of the third quarter.
Curry said the defense made a lot of plays, and that everything that went wrong for Texas Tech was self-inflicted: penalties, missed tackles, and missed assignments.
“What’s actually pretty funny is I was calling out something. It was a completely different play,” Curry said. “Like, I thought a completely different play was coming. But that’s the reason that we have keys and we have reads and stuff. So as soon as I saw that, last year that exact same play, Coach Wood got on to me a lot because I wasn’t exactly doing my job every once in a while. And I expanded and he threw the ball basically right to me. And I thought I was faster than that, but I got hawked.”
Texas Tech had 12 men on the field on a punt return and gave up a first down on a defensive pre-snap penalty. McGuire said the offense did not commit a pre-snap penalty, and that team sports psychologist Dr. Durham met with each position group for six weeks over the summer to work on game anxiety and pre-snap focus. McGuire said neither of Texas Tech’s two preseason scrimmages, both officiated by Big 12 crews, produced a pre-snap penalty from the first-team offense.
Safety Brenden Jordan did not play. McGuire said Jordan’s absence was a team rules violation rather than an injury, that Jordan was on the sideline and is in good standing, and that he will miss the first two games and return for the Sept. 18 Big 12 opener against Houston. Guyton is expected back next week, and McGuire said White is probably another week to two weeks away.
Abilene Christian scored its only points on a 41-yard field goal from Brandon Perez with seven seconds left in the first half and on Alex Broome’s 98-yard kickoff return after Simmons’ touchdown. The Wildcats fell to 0-2 after opening the season with a 21-14 loss at Lamar.
Saturday was the ninth consecutive home win for Texas Tech, which has allowed fewer than 18 points in each of those games. That is the longest such streak by a Big 12 program since 2002. The school record for consecutive home wins is 12, set from 2007 to 2009. Texas Tech has scored at least 28 points in each of its last 54 non-conference home games, and the Red Raiders are 31-3 under McGuire when they tie or lead the turnover margin.
Texas Tech plays at Oregon State next Saturday at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Ore. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. CT on CBS. The Big 12 opener against Houston follows on Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. CT on FOX.
