As the calendar flips to July, it’s time to get ready for the most anticipated Texas Tech football season in quite some time.
Over the next four weeks, we’ll take a look at every team on the Red Raiders’ 2025 schedule, previewing each of the 12 regular season contests to see if Joey McGuire’s team can live up to the hype and get to Arlington for the Big 12 Championship game in December.
Advertisement
We’ll start with Texas Tech’s season opener against FCS opponent Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Led by head coach Alonzo Hampton, the Golden Lions have an opportunity to disrupt the Red Raiders before they really get started. Last year’s season opener against Abilene Christian, another FCS school, sent an early message that Texas Tech’s defense was going to be a major problem in 2024. What can Pine Bluff reveal about this year’s version of the Red Raiders?
Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions’ head coach Alonzo Hampton walks along the sideline during the game against the Jackson State Tigers in Jackson, Miss., on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.
Get to know Texas Tech football opponent: Arkansas-Pine Bluff
Life as an FCS team can be a struggle in the age of name, image and likeness and the transfer portal. That’s certainly the case for Arkansas-Pine Bluff heading into the 2025 season.
Advertisement
The Golden Lions finished 3-9 overall and 2-6 in SWAC play, losing games by scores of 70-0 (Arkansas), 56-17 (Central Arkansas) and 41-3 (Jackson State). They had a scoring margin of negative-12.25 in 2024, but that didn’t prevent their best players from finding new landing spots elsewhere.
Receiver Javonnie Gibson had 70 catches for 1,215 yards and nine touchdowns last season, the only player on the APB roster with 20 catches or more. He wound up transferring to Oklahoma.
Dual-threat quarterback Mekhi Hagens is also gone, having transferred first to Lamar than to Alabama A&M — which handed the Golden Lions a 52-24 loss in early November. Backup running back Johness Davis also left, winding up at Duquesne.
All hope is not lost with the team’s top two running backs set to return. BJ Curry totaled 509 yards and four touchdowns on 123 carries while Za’Marion Webber tallied 334 yards on 64 rushers last season.
Advertisement
Whether or not Curry and Webber are back, though, is determined by some social media detective work as Pine Bluff does not have a 2025 roster available on its athletics page. Exactly who will take the field for the Golden Lions on Aug. 30 will probably be a question right until kickoff on opening night.
One Arkansas-Pine Bluff stat for Texas Tech football fans to know
Hagens, the quarterback who transferred out, may have been a dual-threat, but his rushing numbers are rather pedestrian (134 yards, three TDs on 110 rushing attempts). This is not all on Hagens, though.
Pine Bluff gave up 38 sacks last season, averaging 3.16 per game, which resulted in a loss of 285 total yards in 2024. Hagens himself gained 450 yards but was tacked with a loss of 316 yards.
Advertisement
This should excite the Texas Tech defense, particularly with the brand-new defensive line that has generated the most buzz from its transfer portal haul. Regardless of who takes the field for Pine Bluff, the Red Raiders will send out their defensive front of David Bailey (Stanford transfer), Romello Height (Georgia Tech), Lee Hunter (UCF), Skyler Gill-Howard (Northern Illinois) and several others. The group needs a game to show some continuity, and it’s easy to see why the Pine Bluff game could be a very successful one for the unit.
Final score prediction for Texas Tech football vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff
Texas Tech 56, Arkansas-Pine Bluff 14: If this game is anything but a decisive blowout from the opening kick, that could spell early trouble again for McGuire. While it seems impossible for the Red Raiders to dominate from the jump with so many new pieces around the team, the Golden Lions don’t exude a “don’t sleep on them” mentality.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: What to know about Texas Tech football opponent Arkansas-Pine Bluff
