LIVE: No. 12 Texas Tech vs. Abilene Christian - fox34.com

Hammond's comeback was the headline story at Jones AT&T Stadium, and he delivered, guiding the Red Raiders through seven scoring drives. Four of those seven drives ended in field goals rather than touchdowns, a red zone inefficiency that head coach Joey McGuire acknowledged directly after the game. Stone Harrington went a perfect 4-for-4 on those field goal attempts, so the points did come, just not the way Tech wanted them to.

For fans who sat through last season's frustrating red zone struggles, Saturday felt familiar in stretches. McGuire didn't dodge the question. "It's definitely something that came up last year, it came up tonight that we have to fix," he said. A ranked team beating an FCS opponent by 23 points should feel clean. This one had an asterisk.

The No. 12 ranking puts real expectations on this program heading into Big 12 play, and converting trips inside the 20 into touchdowns instead of field goals is the kind of thing that separates a good season from a great one.