Every weekend of college football is a gift from above, and anyone who says otherwise is ignorant of how incredible this sport is.
With that being said, Week 6 of the 2024 college football season isn’t exactly filled with thrilling matchups, especially when you compare this slate to next week’s.
I mean, ESPN’s College Gameday is headed to Berkeley, California, for the Cal vs. Miami game (*yawn*) for crying out loud.
There’s a way more intriguing game in Big 12 country on Saturday night, and it kicks off around the same time.
At 10:00 p.m. CT on FOX, Joey McGuire and the Texas Tech Red Raiders (4-1, 2-0) are taking on Brent Brennan and the Arizona Wildcats (3-1, 1-0).
Here are three reasons why you should make sure to stay up and catch this week’s Big 12 After Dark matchup.
Battle of Big 12 Unbeatens
Yes, both of these teams have suffered a loss on the year, but both of them enter this game undefeated in Big 12 play. The Red Raiders are 2-0 in league play and have already picked up wins over Arizona State (30-22) and Cincinnati (44-41) in one-score decisions.
Meanwhile, Arizona enters this contest with the most impressive win in Big 12 play to this point — a 13-point win over Utah at Rice Eccles Stadiums.
The winner of this game will not only move themselves one win closer to Arlington but also put themselves in a position to be ranked in next week’s AP Poll.
Fireworks in the Desert
While there’s probably set to be some literal fireworks at Arizona Stadium for this game, considering it’s the Wildcats’ Big 12 home opener and it doesn’t kick off until 10:00, there should be points, points, and more points scored in this one.
Arizona’s offense is rife with scoring potential with Noah Fifita, Tetairoa McMillan, and emerging star Kedrick Reescano at running back. Last week’s performance against Utah has folks thinking the offense is starting to hit its stride, and when that happens, watch out.
Meanwhile, Texas Tech has scored 40 or more points three times already this season and has allowed at least 21 points in all of their games this season and 37 or more three times. The over/under on this game is set at 64.5, but something tells me that these two offenses are going to blow that number out of the water.
Morton vs. Fifita, the QB Battle You Didn’t Know You Needed
To this point in the season, most of the quarterback hype in the Big 12 has been reserved for Shedeur Sanders and Avery Johnson. Don’t you worry, either — those two will get their chance to battle it out next week in Boulder, CO.
This week, though, we get Morton vs. Fifita, both of which rank among the top quarterbacks in the Big 12. Fifita was the FWAA Freshman of the Year and Pac-12 Freshman of the year in 2023 after throwing for 2,869 yards and 25 touchdowns with six interceptions. He’s averaging around 25 more yards per game thus far this season and is up a full yard in yards per completion.
Meanwhile, Morton is off to the best start of his career, completing 63.5% of his attempts for 1,426 yards for 14 touchdowns and just two interceptions. Compare that to his stats in 2023 (62.1%, 1,754 YDS, 15 TD, 8 INT) and it’s easy to see he’s on pace to shatter his best year to date.
