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Gino Garcia a man of the hour in Texas Tech football triumph at Kansas
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- Gino Garcia a man of the hour in Texas Tech football triumph at Kansas
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Joey McGuire told Gino Garcia during the offseason that if Garcia wanted to go on scholarship, he had to show the Texas Tech football coaching staff he had to prove he deserved it.
Garcia made a case for himself Saturday and reinforced what he's done most of the season.
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The senior kicker hit three field goals, including a 30-yarder with three seconds left that boosted faltering Tech past No. 19 Kansas 16-13 after the Red Raiders blew a 13-0 fourth-quarter lead. He brought the Red Raiders within one victory of becoming bowl eligible.
"He's a dude, man," McGuire said. "Nothing bothers him."
Garcia's game winner capped a four-play, 63-yard drive that began after Kansas tied the score with 26 seconds remaining. Garcia's made 45 field goals in four seasons spent at the school formerly known as Houston Baptist and Tech, but said he'd not made a game winner since high school at Richardson Berkner.
"The biggest thing is we've practiced it so many times," he said. "A game winner's a game winner. You practice it all the time. You treat it the same."
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Garcia gave a clap and punched the air after he watched the ball split the uprights at the south end of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. Behren Morton connected with Jerand Bradley on a 33-yard pass down the right sideline, which set up Garcia from a spot where he had not been the most comfortable. Trying to counteract a little crosswind, he'd pulled a 48-yarder wide left earlier in the fourth quarter.
"I struggled today, in warmups and at halftime, on the right hash over there," he said. "So it was kind of something that I was, 'You have to just trust it. You've done it so many times.'"
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Though Garcia made 32 of 46 field goals in the Southland Conference, he joined the Red Raiders as a walk-on before the 2022 season.
In a conversation earlier this year with the Avalanche-Journal, McGuire said, "Gino and I talked about it. I said, 'Gino, I'll put you on in January, but you've got to be the guy. You've got to go out and be the guy for me to put you on scholarship."
Garcia is 13 of 18 this season, perfect inside 40 yards, and has settled in as the year has gone on. He'd made 10 field goals in a row before the miss early in the fourth quarter. That seemed no problem, given the Red Raiders' 13-0 lead and the defense making timely stops all day.
Then Kansas rallied with a 60-yard touchdown run by Devin Neal and Seth Keller field goals from 24 and 22 yards in consecutive series.
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The game seemingly was headed to overtime, the Jayhawks with the momentum and threatening to steal victory in a game the Red Raiders controlled for three quarters.
On the game-winning drive, Morton hit Bradley for 16 yards and Myles Price for 14. Tech used a timeout, and then Bradley went up over cornerback Mello Dotson to reel in a deep throw and come down at the 12-yard line.
"We knew they were going to go man coverage, and J.B. got a good jump from the start," Morton said. "I held my eyes in the middle of the field to keep that safety high and put it on his (Bradley's) back shoulder, and he made a great play on it. Set us up for Gino to do his job."
Bradley made a similar catch over Dotson for 31 yards in the third quarter. Bradley finished with four catches for 91 yards, his season high.
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"J.B. hadn't come out of his break yet," McGuire said of the last catch, "so it was impressive — number one, for him to get his eyes around, but just the ability to catch that ball."
Before the last drive, the Red Raiders relied on Tahj Brooks , who ran for 133 yards on a career-high 33 carries. It was Brooks' seventh 100-yard rushing performance in eight games. The 225-pound senior has carried at least 30 times three games in a row and four of the past five.
"I'm feeling 100%, as I was last week and the week before," Brooks said. "So it's really on me, during the week, taking care of my body and staying on top of it."
Texas Tech place kicker Gino Garcia kicks the game winning field goal against the Kansas during the Big 12 football game, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023, at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Gino Garcia a man of the hour in Texas Tech football triumph at Kansas
