There’s never been a time in the sport of college football like we are experiencing now with player movement from program to program. The transfer portal combined with the new rule that allows players one free transfer without having to sit out a year has revolutionized the sport. That means that there will be plenty of new faces on the field for the Texas Tech football program this year.
Tech has already secured 13 transfers in the class of 2022 and there’s always the possibility of adding more before the season begins. To some, that number might seem high, especially given new head coach Joey McGuire’s love of the high school prospect being as he is a former high school football coach.
But the simple reality is that when McGuire arrived, he saw obvious holes in his roster and he knew that the best way to fill them was by bringing in veteran players who were ready to play now. After all, Tech is in a win-now mindset as the pressure to end the program’s decade-long slide to irrelevance is at a fevered pitch, especially when it comes to McGuire’s boss, AD Kirby Hocutt, who fired McGuire’s predecessor Matt Wells after just two and a half years on the job.
So McGuire has hit the transfer portal hard in his first offseason in charge. And there seem to be three key areas that he wanted to address. First was the offensive line where he added four players. The second was the defensive line where he brought in three players (one being a linebacker who will be an edge rusher). And third was at receiver where three more fresh faces have joined the ranks.
It will be interesting to see if this is just a one-year trend for McGuire or if he will continue to lean heavily on the transfer portal to fortify his roster. Early indications suggest that next offseason will be much quieter on that front given that the 2023 recruiting class already has 20 high school players in it, already two more than the 2022 class had.
Of course, history suggests that Tech would get solid and immediate contributions from each of the transfers in this class. But if a handful of them can make a difference, it could push the Red Raiders to a successful season.
So let’s take a look at five new faces that could make an immediate impact. And we will start with a player who is making an unusual position switch.