Ask Behren Morton what he remembers most about the best season Texas Tech has ever had, and the quarterback might mention a game he didn't get to play because of an injury, which was also the Red Raiders' only loss.
That day in the Arizona desert in October stands out to Morton because the Lubbock native knows more than most about the largely forgettable football past on the plains of West Texas.
The Red Raiders were perfect six games into the season before the 26-22 loss to Arizona State, and the fifth-year senior was among those who thought the younger players needed a history lesson that next week.
“We brought everyone up, and we kind of said, ‘Is this going to be another year for Texas Tech where we win eight games and go make a decent bowl game, or do we have something special?’” Morton said.
The Red Raiders and their quarterback believe they're on the way to the answer.
Texas Tech (12-1) set a school record for wins by beating BYU 34-7 for the school's first Big 12 championship, also clinching a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff.
The No. 4 seed plays fifth-seeded Oregon (12-1), a first-round winner over James Madison, in an Orange Bowl quarterfinal on Thursday. Both teams have those same rankings in The Associated Press poll.
A career plagued by shoulder issues for Morton turned into a season of dealing with lower-body injuries — first what coach Joey McGuire said was a hyperextended knee, then what was reported as a hairline fracture in his right fibula.
The fracture was what kept Morton out against the Sun Devils and for a 42-0 victory over Oklahoma State when backup Will Hammond's season-ending knee injury forced Morton to put on his uniform at halftime. He didn't have to play.
All McGuire will say about the reported fibula injury is that the medical staff has made Morton wear a walking boot most of the time — against his will. He will have had nearly four weeks off before taking the field against the Ducks.
“This is for sure the best I’ve felt, probably since the Kansas game,” Morton said, referring to the Oct. 11 game in which the injury happened on a sack. “I’ve gotten to get out the boot a little bit, still in the boot here and there. But when we get to practice, coach lets me take the boot off and kind of get after it, so it’s been good.”
Morton was born in Lubbock when his father, James, was the head coach at one of the local high schools. He was the quarterback for his dad in Eastland, a small town 220 miles southeast of Texas Tech's campus.
Morton was a kid idolizing Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree, who combined for the most famous play in what before this year was the best season the Red Raiders ever had.
That 2008 team was 10-0, with a thrilling 39-33 victory over Texas on the Harrell-to-Crabtree touchdown with 1 second remaining before losing to Oklahoma, missing out on the BCS Championship — the two-team playoff era — and finishing 11-2.
Yes, even Morton considered leaving his beloved school in this era of the transfer portal. He went through another offensive coordinator change in the offseason.
Morton stayed, deciding instead to be part of the welcoming group for a high-priced transfer class that was considered among the best in the country. Several of those transfers mixed with holdover linebacker Jacob Rodriguez to turn Texas Tech into one of the best defenses in country, when defense had always been the thing holding the Red Raiders back.
“We say that we’re, ‘The Brand,’ which is the hardest, toughest-working, most competitive team in the country,” Morton said. “And from that day one, when those guys came in, we told them what the culture was, told them what ‘The Brand’ was, and they really embodied that. With having one year of eligibility left, you might think that guy’s coming in there just for himself. You know, he’s getting a lot of money, he’s going to go to the (NFL) next year, but that’s not been the case at all.”
McGuire won three Texas state championships as a high school coach in Cedar Hill, near Dallas. He and Morton share a loyalty to Lubbock and deep ties to the state's football-rich tradition.
That's probably why they had a conversation in June about winning a Big 12 championship at the home of the Dallas Cowboys, where all 12 of the high school title games are played each December.
And that's probably why Morton's dad sent McGuire a text the week of the Big 12 title game telling the coach to make sure he got a picture with the quarterback before they left AT&T Stadium.
McGuire relayed that message the morning of the game.
“We found each other, and we both got emotional,” Morton said. “I just love this university and everything it stands for. I think this town deserves championships to be brought back home.”
Morton isn't alone with that thought. He shares a fraternity with Harrell and three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City, who believe it or not never won a bowl game at Texas Tech. Harrell recruited him. Mahomes texts him all the time, when he's not there in person as he was for the rout of Oklahoma State.
And there was a time, 60 or so years ago, when the Red Raiders would flirt with contention from time to time in the old Southwest Conference.
“I still have that guy that’s about 85 years old texting me, telling me how proud he is of this team and to be a Red Raider,” Morton said. “It’s really nothing like I’ve ever seen.”
It's nothing like Lubbock has seen either.
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FILE - Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire looks on during the Big 12 Conference championship NCAA college football game between Texas Tech and BYU Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
FILE - Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton stands on the sideline in the second half of a Big 12 Conference championship NCAA college football game against BYU Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia attacked Ukraine's capital with ballistic missiles and drones on Saturday, killing at least one person and wounding 27, a day before talks between the leaders of Ukraine and the United States, authorities said.
Explosions boomed across Kyiv as the attack began in early morning and continued for hours.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepared to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday for further talks on ending the nearly four-year war. Zelenskyy told reporters he and Trump plan to discuss several matters including security guarantees and territorial issues in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
“This attack is Russia’s answer on our peace efforts. It really shows that (President Vladimir) Putin doesn’t want peace,” Zelenskyy said after stopping in Canada to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Carney announced $1.8 billion worth of economic assistance to Ukraine that helps unlock financing from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for reconstruction and development.
“The barbarism that we saw overnight, the attack of Kyiv, shows just how important that we stand with Ukraine during this difficult time," Carney said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it carried out a “massive strike” overnight, using “long-range precision-guided weapons from land, air and sea, including Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles” and drones. It said it targeted energy infrastructure facilities used by Ukraine's forces and military-industrial enterprises.
But several residential buildings were struck.
The ministry said the strike was in response to Ukraine’s attacks on “civilian objects” in Russia. Earlier on Saturday, the ministry said air defenses shot down seven Ukrainian drones over the Russian regions of Krasnodar and Adygeya overnight. On Saturday afternoon, the ministry said 147 more drones were shot down over a number of Russian regions.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defenses intercepted more than 20 drones “flying towards” the Russian capital on Saturday. He didn't report any damage or casualties. It wasn't immediately clear whether those were included in the Defense Ministry's count.
Poland scrambled fighter jets and closed airports in Lublin and Rzeszow near the border with Ukraine for several hours during the Russian attacks, the country’s armed forces command said on social media. There was no violation of Polish airspace, it said.
Civil aviation authority Pansa later said the airports had resumed operations. It was unclear what caused the alert in Poland when the Russian attacks were focused on Kyiv, which is far from the border.
Russia targeted Ukraine with 519 drones and 40 missiles, Ukraine's air force said. The main target was energy and civilian infrastructure in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said. In some districts of the region there is no electricity or heating because of the attacks, he said.
More than 10 residential buildings were damaged, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on social media.
Olena Karpenko, 52, said she heard a man as he burned to death. “His scream is still in my ears. I can’t believe it,” she said, weeping.
Karpenko said they heard a explosion at the nearby thermal power plant, followed by a stronger blast that shook the windows of her home. Then came the strike on her building.
Two children were among those wounded in the attack, which hit seven locations across the capital, the head of the Kyiv Military Administration, Tymur Tkachenko, said on social media.
A body was found under the rubble of one damaged building, he said. It wasn’t immediately clear if that person was the man who burned to death.
A fire broke out in an 18-story residential building in the Dnipro district, and emergency crews rushed to contain the flames. A 24-story residential building in the Darnytsia district was also hit, Tkachenko said, and more fires broke out in the Obolonskyi and Holosiivsky districts.
In the wider Kyiv region, the strikes hit industrial and residential buildings, according to Ukraine's Emergency Service. In the Vyshhorod area, emergency crews rescued one person found under the rubble of a destroyed house.
Zelenskyy told reporters he would aim to ensure there were “ as few unresolved issues as possible ” in talks with Trump, while respecting Ukraine's red lines.
Speaking by audio note in a Whatsapp chat with journalists, Zelenskyy said he would prioritize discussing security guarantees for Ukraine. He has said that in the draft peace plan, the U.S. has committed to providing guarantees that mirror the NATO alliance's Article 5, which means an attack on Ukraine would trigger a collective military response from the U.S. and its allies.
But key details must be worked out in a bilateral agreement.
Territorial concessions are the most sensitive of issues the two leaders will discuss, including the Donetsk region and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would never recognize any territory as Russian “under any circumstances."
Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
A rescue worker climbs onto the roof of apartment building damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A rescue worker puts out a fire of a house destroyed after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Rescue workers clear the rubble at the roof of apartment building damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A psychologist of a rescue team helps en elderly woman at the hospice which was damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Rescuers carry the body of a victim after Russian drone hit a multi-storey apartment building during a massive missile and drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescuers work on the scene of a building damaged by a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescuers work on the scene of a building damaged by a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescuers work on the scene of a building damaged by a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescuers work on the scene of a building damaged by a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
