CFP QUARTERFINAL AT THE CAPITAL ONE ORANGE BOWL: OREGON VS TEXAS TECH

December 30, 2025

Mack Leftwich

Hard Rock Stadium

Texas Tech Red Raiders

Press Conference

MACK LEFTWICH: My dad was a coach, college coach for a long time, and that was one of his coaching buddies, now runs a podcast really for high school coaches in Arkansas. So it was just such kind of a unique thing, and that was my brother's bachelor party.

Q. It was your brother's bachelor party?

MACK LEFTWICH: It was my brother's bachelor party, and Coach Williams, who runs this podcast, has been wanting to get my dad and my brother and me for a podcast the last couple years. So it was like: We're all going to be in the same spot; you can come down here, and we can film this thing. So we started off the bachelor party with the podcast.

Anyways, that was just a question that he asked. I think he was trying to poke the bear a little bit and get me and my brother talking some smack to each other.

Q. Where was the bachelor party?

MACK LEFTWICH: It was in San Marcos, so there in Central Texas. (Indiscernible) at Texas State the year before, and Cutter loves that area, and we went and floated the river and hung out in San Marcos. So it was a real guys' weekend.

Q. Since he spoke it into existence, how does it feel that you're days away now from playing against each other?

MACK LEFTWICH: Pretty surreal. It'll be really a cool moment, I think, pregame when we go out there and get to kind of dap each other up. It's like, man, this is pretty cool. We're both living our dream. Both of us grew up watching our dad coaching and wanting to be coaches, so pretty awesome to do it on this stage.

Q. How are your parents going to handle this?

MACK LEFTWICH: My dad is pretty cool, calm and collected. I think my mom might be a little bit of a wreck. She's pretty conflicted on how to root for the game. I'm sure she's hoping for probably their O-line to play well and our offense to score points.

Q. Does she have a shirt where she's going to put both --

MACK LEFTWICH: She's got a shirt. My wife had it made, so it's got Texas Tech and the little Raider Red and Oregon with the Duck, so she'll be supporting both teams.

Q. In talking to your dad about the massive influence he's had on your career, from your perspective, what do you think was his biggest game?

MACK LEFTWICH: He's coached in a couple of conference championships. I know they won one when he was at Tulsa and ended up playing in the Liberty Bowl when he was at Pittsburgh. The Backyard Brawl against West Virginia is always a huge game.

But I think that, too, that gives me and my brother an appreciation for being here. We saw how hard my dad worked, and he coached in college for 30 years and never had an opportunity to coach in the game of this magnitude. Pretty awesome for both of us to do it here and for my dad to be able to be here in the stands and get to watch it.

Q. (Indiscernible.)

MACK LEFTWICH: We've kept it pretty cordial. I think our wives are actually on a cruise together right now, so they're --

Q. Out of Miami, I hope?

MACK LEFTWICH: Yeah, the wives did like a little wives' cruise this morning, so they're hanging out together right now.

Q. Are they going to get back in one day, two days --

MACK LEFTWICH: It's like a little lunch cruise, one of those type of things. We're all hanging out. I think I'm going to try to get dinner together as a family, kind of -- we still love each other. For about three hours after kickoff we'll be competitors.

Q. He does claim the better beard. Do you want to confirm that?

MACK LEFTWICH: He does have a good beard. I might give him that one. I'll give him that one.

Q. Who's the bigger trash talker?

MACK LEFTWICH: I'd probably say probably growing up, it had to have been me. I feel like I won more, so when you're winning you just have the ability to talk more trash. So probably me.

Q. This rivalry, once you found out that it was going to be Oregon, did it bring back any memories for you guys when you were younger, that sibling rivalry between you two?

MACK LEFTWICH: A little bit. Kind of just the back-and-forth that we had because that's -- we grew up with three boys. I'm the oldest, Cutter, and then we have a younger brother. There wasn't very many dull moments at the house. My mom always jokes everything turned into a weapon at the house so you're naturally wrestling around and competing at everything that you do. That was just kind of our life growing up.