Heading into year four of the Joey McGuire era of Texas Tech football, the Red Raiders are at a pretty interesting spot. This is a team that, given the influx of NIL money and the way that TTU worked in the transfer portal, could conceivably make a run for the Big 12 championship this season. Or, well, that’s at least the hope.
While it previously appears like Texas Tech may have hit a ceiling under McGuire’s leadership with an average of 7-8 wins a season, the Red Raiders might be a bit closer to breaking through than what some are comfortable acknowledging. Yes, Texas Tech gave up 51 points to Abilene Christian a season ago, but the Red Raiders also went out and put up a 6-3 Big 12 record last season.
So, maybe with the hiring of brilliant young coaching minds like a brand new defensive coordinator in Shiel Wood and a brand new offensive coordinator in Mack Leftwich, we’ll see some improvement in the very near future.
Oh, and by the way, the Red Raiders also managed to churn through their roster (shoutout to that aforementioned NIL push and the transfer portal) that resulted in 20ish new players showing up in Lubbock to help reinforce things across the board.
But as one anonymous coach told Athlon Sports, it’s not clear if that sort of spending will put the Red Raiders on the throne of the Big 12 in just one cycle.
Rival Big 12 coach questions if Texas Tech football will be elevated into conference championship contenders via NIL spending
“They’re better pretty much everywhere, obviously. But don’t assume you can spend your way to a power conference championship in one cycle,” one coach anonymously told Athlon Sports. “Don’t get me wrong — all of us would rather have an NIL collective that’s throwing a ton of cash instead of the alternative, but there’s a lot of questions here.”
And there is a pretty big thing that this coach brings up in that quote there. That whole thing about “one cycle.” It’s worth pointing out just how quickly some rebuilding projects are happening these days. Like the Arizona State Sun Devils going from the bottom of the Pac-12 to, with some portal work and some changes on the coaching staff, thriving in the Big 12.
Will we see similar sorts of elevation from the Red Raiders this fall? I don’t know. Will this be something that takes another year or two? Maybe? But with as volatile as this conference can be and with the way the Red Raiders were looking pretty good in conference play last year, maybe we see things actually work out in Texas Tech’s favor.
Also, is that sort of success sustainable? Will Texas Tech continue to spend in a way that brings that sort of recruiting boost to Lubbock on an annual basis? We’re really still pretty early in this current era of college football and the sample sizes are still pretty small, all things considered.