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Behren Morton to start as Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire wants him to stay sharp
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- Behren Morton to start as Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire wants him to stay sharp
Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire said early in the week that he wanted Behren Morton to play in the Red Raiders ' Saturday, Sept. 6 game against Kent State if he felt good in practice and ready to go.
That's apparently how it played out behind the scenes over the course of the week. Morton, who suffered a hyperextended knee in the season opener, is set to start on Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium.
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McGuire said in the pre-game show on the Tech radio network that Morton moved well in practice.
"He looked great, had a lot of zip on his ball," McGuire said on the broadcast. "The time that I've seen quarterbacks not go when they can go, then if they come in the next week, if there's rust and they don't play very well, a lot of times they've lost their timing."
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McGuire added that Tech is "on a collision course" with the Sept. 20 Big 12 opener at Utah, and he didn't want Morton's timing disrupted leading up to that game.
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"I want Behren Morton feeling great physically, but I also want him feeling good mentally," McGuire said. "He feels really good, so we want to let him roll."
Quarterback Behren Morton goes through a drill during Texas Tech football practice, Monday, August 4, 2025, at the Womble Football Center.
Morton was injured in the second quarter of the Red Raiders' 67-7 rout of Arkansas-Pine Bluff and sat out the rest of the game. McGuire said offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich's practice script early in the week was designed to test Morton's mobility and that he handled it well.
Tech is favored over Kent State by 48 1/2 points.
Starting cornerback Maurion Horn and backup edge defender Charles Esters III are the most significant players listed as unavailable on Tech's pre-game injury report.
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Dontae Balfour, one of four players expected to be in the Red Raiders' cornerbacks rotation, is expected back, however, after he missed last week's game.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football QB Behren Morton to start vs Kent State
