(Photo: CBS Sports)
2025 Recap: I still remember the first time I watched them play last season. It was week 4 of the regular season and they had a showdown against the Utah Utes in Salt Lake City. Prior to this game, I noticed how they were lighting the scoreboard up as an offense. From there, I knew I had to check in on this team more and I remember telling Israel Rivera last season on “College Football Showdown” that I got a 2022 TCU feel from them. Behren Morton was the conductor of the offense and defensively, David Bailey, Romello Height and Jacob Rodriguez former one of the best defensive trios in the country. The Red Raiders won the Big 12 conference title game and clinched one of the top four seeds in the College Football Playoff, but their season ended against the Oregon Ducks in the second round.
Key Departures: QB Behren Morton, DT Lee Hunter, LB Jacob Rodriguez & EDGE David Bailey.
2026 Prediction: Despite the Brendan Sorsby situation, this Texas Tech group is still favored to win this conference once again. Joey McGuire had a dominant team last season, especially in conference play as they won nine games in the Big 12 by 22 or more points. I know they lost key pieces once again from last season, but I don’t expect much to change with this football team. Will Hammond will be the projected starting Quarterback and already has a feel for what this offense wants to do and the biggest improvement from last year was their defense that made such tremendous strides a year ago. They will have big shoes to fill replacing David Bailey, Jacob Rodriguez and Lee Hunter, but Joey was able to take advantage of the portal and landed Trey White and Adam Trick. This will be a tough out again.
