LUBBOCK, Texas -- A week after a disappointing loss to Cincinnati, a switch at quarterback ignited Texas Tech's struggling offense, keeping its Big 12 championship and College Football Playoff hopes alive with the No. 13 Red Raiders' 34-26 win over No. 22 Arizona.
The offense got new life and Thomas Castellanos got his first start in a Red Raiders uniform after he started 33 games in a career that includes stops at UCF, Boston College and Florida State. Castellanos got the start over Will Hammond and threw for 144 yards and two touchdowns -- a 24-yarder to Terrance Carter Jr. and a 27-yarder to Kenny Johnson -- and rushed for 117 and another score. And he says he's a new man in Lubbock.
"I feel like Tommy was the last four years," he said. "I'm Thomas now. Tommy was given to me. I never asked to be Tommy. I never chose to be Tommy. People just started calling me Tommy and I just accepted it. But I want to be called Thomas now."
Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire will call him whatever he wants after he helped Tech rebound from what McGuire said was a really difficult week.
"I'm usually always a person that can get to what's next after a loss, and I couldn't this week," McGuire said. "I felt it. We really disappointed our university, we disappointed our alumni, and it was a tough week."
Last Sunday, he and offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich met and decided to make a change at quarterback. They told Castellanos and Hammond on Monday, and McGuire said Hammond responded by saying all he wanted was what was best for the team.
A week after he didn't appear at all in the game against Cincinnati, which McGuire called a "total failure" on his part, Castellanos played wire-to-wire. His legs opened running lanes for running back J'Koby Williams in an option-heavy attack, with Williams adding 14 carries for 175 yards, including a career-long 64-yard touchdown with 2:05 remaining that gave the Red Raiders a 34-23 lead and put the game out of reach for Arizona.
Castellanos and Williams became the first pair of Texas Tech teammates to each top 110 rushing yards in the same game, according to ESPN Research, and the Red Raiders' 332 total rushing yards were their second most in the past 100 years.
McGuire said Castellanos' experience was a big lift for the Red Raiders.
"I thought he gave us juice today," he said. "He plays with a confidence. He's played a lot of football. I thought you saw a very experienced quarterback out there today and made some really good plays. I thought he played really well and we've just got to build on it."
Castellanos completed just 46% of his passes, going 11-of-24. But McGuire has been frustrated all season by the Red Raiders' inability to stretch the field, and Castellanos averaged 15.3 air yards per attempt, compared with 8.4 this season for Hammond.
"We're going to complete some of those," McGuire said. "Tommy's got a really big arm. ... He was really fired up about the opportunity. And so some of that probably was adrenaline. But one thing that it did do is it showed that we could throw the ball downfield, really push it downfield, and that got them off of us a little bit."
It gave the Tech offense more room to work and a new look. Castellanos' 117 rushing yards are the fourth most for a Texas Tech quarterback, trailing three performances by Joe Barnes in 1973, but the most against a ranked opponent.
Castellanos said he was still rusty. He told McGuire earlier in the season after an interception versus Houston that he was concerned he was going to be relegated to a red zone quarterback or a running option. He said he could still benefit from more work, more timing, more chemistry with his teammates.
"We have really good receivers and I overshot those guys a lot today, but just more time with them, more chemistry, I think we'll get it done," he said.
On Saturday, McGuire was not ready to name Castellanos the permanent starter, saying the staff makes those decisions on Monday. But he said he'd be "shocked" if Castellanos wasn't starting Tuesday's practice.
ESPN's Allstate Playoff Predictor gave Texas Tech just a 10% chance to return to the CFP if it lost this game. With a win, its chances jumped to 46%. McGuire said he's glad his players hung together to survive and advance.
After transferring to Texas Tech this offseason, Castellanos was declared ineligible after a ruling from the Kentucky Court of Appeals on Oct. 2, the day before the Red Raiders' road win at Colorado. He was granted a temporary injunction Oct. 16 to resume playing, and on Friday a Kentucky judge denied the NCAA's request for emergency relief. Castellanos said he arrived in Lubbock just to win. And he helped the Red Raiders do that on Saturday.
"I could have been a backup anywhere," Castellanos said. "After the season [Tech] had last year, with a lot of returning players, just talking to Coach Joey and talking to the staff and just being around, I just want to win. I don't care if I play. I don't care if I'm used in the red zone just to run it or whatever it is. I just want to win a championship. That's it."
