Texas Tech football: All-time Houston area Red Raider team
Over the years, the Texas Tech football program has mined some terrific talent out of the Houston area. Here’s the all-time Red Raider team comprised of players from H-town.
The fourth-largest city in the United States, Houston, Texas is a hotbed for high school football. Annually, programs from across the nation flock to Space City in hopes of adding elite talent to their roster and that is true of the Texas Tech football program as well.
On the 2019 roster, 15 players come from the greater Houston area. That’s 13.7% of the roster.
But as the competition for Texas talent has come to include virtually every program in the nation, Tech is having to not only beat out in-state rivals for top H-town talent. And we can blame much of that on Texas A&M.
When the Aggies jumped ship from the Big 12 to the SEC in 2011, it brought the Houston area into play for just about every SEC team. Certainly, schools close to Houston like LSU and Arkansas were already working the Bayou CIty. But other SEC schools began to focus more heavily on Houston once they could sell Texas players on the possibility of still playing in their home state while playing in the SEC.
What’s more, Houston now is as much an SEC market as a Big 12 market with the media in southeast Texas paying equal attention to both leagues.
With each passing year, the battle for top Houston talent is becoming more and more intense. And given the quality of the players that have come out of H-town in the past, that’s no surprise.
Of course, in 2019 Houston native Ed Oliver was taken No. 9 overall by the Buffalo Bills after being an All-American defensive tackle for the Houston Cougars. He is the latest Houston native to be a highly-coveted NFL draft pick but only time will tell if he lives up to the standard set by other Houstonians in the NFL.
Maybe the best high school player Houston has produced in decades, Vince Young, was one of the best college quarterbacks of his generation while at Texas where he led the Longhorns to the 2004 national title. However, off-field issues derailed his NFL career.
The best player ever to come from Houston is Hall of Fame linebacker Mike Singletary. Playing for the Chicago Bears from 1981-1992, the former Baylor Bear is a 10-time Pro Bowler and widely considered the greatest middle linebacker to ever play the game.
Another Hall of Famer from Houston is former Buffalo Bills running back Thurman Thomas. The Oklahoma State product led the Bills to 4-straight Super Bowl appearances in the 1990s.
Defensive end Michael Strahan was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014 after starring for the New York Giants. But he began his football journey at Houston’s Westbury High School.
Mel Renfro, one of the best defensive backs in Dallas Cowboys’ history can also trace his roots back to Houston. In 14 seasons in the NFL, he picked off 52 passes, most of any Dallas Cowboy.
Current Indianapolis Colts’ QB Andrew Luck is a graduate of Stratford High School. Already a 4-time Pro Bowl selection, Lubck could be the next Houston native to have a bust in Canton.
Another veteran NFL QB, Andy Dalton, is also a product of the Houston area. He was a star at one of the top high school programs in the state, Katy, before heading to TCU. He’s been the Bengals’ QB since 2011 and has thrown 188 career touchdown passes.
Meanwhile, Texas Tech has relied heavily on Houston talent as well over the years. So let’s take a closer look at the best players from Clutch City that have ever donned the Double-T. Here’s is the all-time Houston-area Texas Tech football team.