MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton, with tears streaming from red eyes and down his cheeks, provided the lasting visual for the feeling within the Red Raiders locker room.

His coach Joey McGuire began his Orange Bowl postgame news conference by thanking Red Raiders fans for coming along on his team’s ride to a Big 12 championship and 12-win season. Then, he apologized for how it ended: an ugly 23-0 loss to Oregon at Hard Rock Stadium.

“I’m sorry that we let you down,” said McGuire, whose team became the third in the College Football Playoff era to be shut out. “But I hope you’ve enjoyed every second of this year. Man, this is such a special team and I’m so proud of them.”

Texas Tech’s rise from eight wins in 2024 to a dozen and a CFP first-round bye in 2025 was the perfect example of what aggressive spending in the transfer portal can buy you in modern-day college football. Done right, a mid-level program can climb to top of its conference standings and get to the big stage in a short amount of time. The Red Raiders recognized that and poured upwards of $25 million into this year’s roster, making headlines all year as their CFP-or-bust mission paid off.

But getting to the big stage and winning here are two entirely different things.

It was obvious Oregon’s defense presented a step up in class for Texas Tech’s offense, which faced only two other top-40 scoring defenses all season (Utah and BYU, the Cougars twice). In the end, it didn’t matter that the Red Raiders had one of the country’s most explosive offenses, entering the weekend with the second-most plays of 20-plus yards (90) and the largest average margin of victory (31.5 points) in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

The free-agent acquisitions general manager James Blanchard put on the field for defensive coordinator Shiel Wood put Texas Tech on an even playing field with Oregon’s offense. There just wasn’t enough talent put into the Red Raiders offense to give them a fighting chance in this matchup.

“I know stats are a little bit different, but they were rushing for over 200 yards against Big Ten teams and they rushed for 64 yards today,” McGuire said. “I know some of that was in sacks and snaps and stuff like that, but we still did that.

“I do think, and Behren will probably say the same thing, I think defensively that was probably the best defense we’ve faced this year. I do think they did a really good job schematically. Their defensive coordinator, defensive staff did a really good job of giving us some issues. We didn’t play good enough. It really wasn’t the patch on anybody’s arm. That’s a really good football team, though. If the quarterback (Dante Moore) decides to go in the draft, he’s probably going to be the first or second guy taken.”