There’s not a lot of new in the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

On the other hand, given a team with seemingly ample talent and so little turnover, the intrigue factor is at or near an all-time high.

Texas Tech vs. Eastern Washington

COVERAGE

Radio: 3 p.m. on KKAM (1340 AM); 5:15 p.m. on other Texas Tech Sports Network stations.

TV: None

RECORDS

Both teams were 9-4 last season.

TICKETS

About 48,000 had been sold through Friday. About 4,500 remained.

FAST FACTS

Tech hasn’t lost a season opener at home since 1992 against Oklahoma and hasn’t lost a home opener since 1999 against North Texas. … Tech coach Mike Leach is 17-1 in non-conference games at Jones AT&T Stadium. … Senior QB Graham Harrell needs seven touchdown passes to break Kliff Kingsbury’s Tech career record of 95. He needs 1,748 passing yards to break Kingsbury’s Tech career record of 12,429. … Tech has gone 13 seasons in a row with a winning record, the fifth-longest active streak nationally behind Florida State (30), Michigan (22), Florida (19) and Virginia Tech (14).

FORECAST

Mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Temperatures dropping into the 70s from an afternoon high of 83 degrees. Southeast winds from 5 to 10 mph.

NEXT FOR TECH

Tech plays its only September road game next Saturday at Nevada. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:05 p.m. CDT.

Mike Crabtree: Can the Tech wide receiver equal or exceed his smashing debut season?

Ruffin McNeill: Starting his first full year as defensive coordinator, will the new wrinkles he’s thrown in add to the improvements seen in the second half of last year?

Graham Harrell: He’s in line to get some prestigious career records. Can he avoid a midseason slump and lead the team to a higher win total?

And for Texas Tech in general: Can the Red Raiders live up to their No. 12 and No. 14 national rankings?

The answers start to reveal themselves today when Tech hosts Eastern Washington, a Division I-AA quarterfinalist last year, in a 6 p.m. season opener at Jones AT&T Stadium. With Tech having its highest preseason ranking since 1977, a few more people – not locally, but elsewhere – will be paying attention.

“We try not to think about it too much or worry about what other people are thinking; that’s for sure,” Harrell said this week. “But at the same time, it’s exciting that other people are looking at us. It’s exciting that other people are looking forward to, What can they do?’ ”

The Raiders can’t do all they want unless they first dispense with Eastern Washington. After three playoff trips in four years, Paul Wulff left EWU to be head coach at Washington State. Today is the EWU head-coaching debut of Beau Baldwin, though he was the team’s offensive coordinator from 2003-06.

The Eagles were a 9-4 team a year ago, just like Tech, but on a different level. Much like Tech, they return an experienced cast.

“It’s not really a difference,” said safety Darcel McBath, one of the eight starters back on Tech’s defense. “They’re good players. They’re just playing at Eastern Washington, and we’re more in the spotlight than they are. They’ve got a lot of really good players. Their offense is a force to be reckoned with.”

The pitch-and-catch combo of Matt Nichols and Aaron Boyce, plus experienced running backs, gives the Eagles a chance to make some noise.

Tech would like to start with an impressive game from its defense since that group wants to keep going in the right direction after last September’s in-season transition from Lyle Setencich to McNeill.

“Our offense has been consistent, nine years, week in and week out, year in and year out,” McNeill said. “What we have approached and challenged our defense with is, we appreciate the expectations, but to be put in the same breath as our offense, we have to be consistent.”

Probably the strength of the defense will be in the front four. Returning starters Jake Ratliff, Colby Whitlock, Ra’Jon Henley and Brandon Williams all kept their jobs. Throw in other established players such as Richard Jones and Daniel Howard to go with transfers Brandon Sesay, McKinner Dixon and Chris Perry, and the Raiders are dreaming of a fire-breathing front four.

“These guys are going to be fresh,” McBath said. “They’re going to get after the quarterback every play. They made a lot of plays in camp and made it a lot easier on us. A lot of (passes) are being thrown up for grabs for us to go make a play on.”