LUBBOCK, Texas – Cody Hodges threw for 643 yards and five touchdowns to lead No. 13 Texas Tech over Kansas State 59-20 Saturday, helping the Red Raiders to their best start since 1998.
The win sets up a showdown at No. 2 Texas next week that could ultimately determine the winner of the Big 12 South division.
Hodges, who left the game with 4:48 remaining, completed 44 of 65 passes and threw two interceptions. He threw TD passes of 34, 20, 21, 3 and 39 yards. The major college record for yards passing in a game is 716 by Houston’s David Klingler in 1990.
The Red Raiders (6-0, 3-0) had four receivers with more than 100 yards.
Hodges’ favorite receiver was Joel Filani, who set a new conference record for receiving yards in a game with 255 on 10 catches. The previous Big 12 record was 241 yards by Texas Tech’s Donnie Hart against Texas in 1996.
Last week, Filani caught 11 passes for 163 yards and three touchdowns against Nebraska. He got one TD on Saturday.
Taurean Henderson caught 10 passes for 118 yards, Jarrett Hicks made nine catches for 105 yards, and Robert Johnson caught seven for 107 yards.
Henderson, who ran for three touchdowns and caught two others scores, became the NCAA leader in receptions by a running back (263) on the game’s third play when he caught a screen pass for 19 yards. He entered the game needing one catch to pass Long Beach State’s Mark Templeton for the career record. Templeton caught 262 passes from 1984-87.
The Wildcats (4-2, 1-2) hurt themselves in the third quarter, losing the ball on three of its first four possessions. Tech converted the two fumbles and an interception into touchdowns to take a 38-13 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff, Yamon Figurs took the ball at the 2 and returned it untouched 98 yards to pull the Wildcats within 38-20 with 2:37 remaining in the third quarter.
They could pull no closer.
The Red Raiders started off slowly and Kansas State became the first team this season to score points – a field goal – against them in a first quarter. The Wildcats kept the Red Raiders out of the end zone until late in the second quarter.
AP-ES-10-15-05 1723EDT
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