The pursuit of quality offensive linemen never ends for college football programs. That's true for Texas Tech as well, and this weekend, an important 2026 offensive line target will be in Lubbock to see the Red Raiders as they hold spring practices.
Jerald "JJ" Mays, a 6-foot-2, 290-pound prospect from Pflugerville, Texas, recently posted on X that he will travel to the South Plains this weekend. This is an important development in the recruitment of a player with plenty of power-conference offers.
Rated a 3-star prospect by the 247Sports composite rankings, Mays is listed as the No. 63 interior offensive lineman in his class and the No. 99 player in Texas regardless of position. In addition to Texas Tech, he holds offers from Ole Miss, SMU, Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Duke, Houston, Maryland, Miami, Michigan State, Nebraska, Oregon, Stanford, Southern California, and others.
Excited to be in Lubbock tomorrow! #WreckEm @JoeyMcGuireTTU @ClayMcGuireTTU @Coach_Leftwich @WeissFootball @9ine0Elite pic.twitter.com/R7WUUw0DS8
— Jerald “JJ” Mays (@JeraldJJMays) April 3, 2025
Thus far in head coach Joey McGuire's tenure as Red Raider head coach, building a quality offensive line has been a struggle. Not all of that is the current coaching staff's fault, though.
Years of poor recruiting along the offensive line under the previous two coaching staffs left little in the cupboard when McGuire took over. Thus, McGuire and Co. have had to turn to the transfer portal to piece together a suitable offensive line each year that they have been in charge.
In 2022, the program added five offensive linemen from the portal. Of that group, Monroe Mills from Oklahoma State, Cole Spencer from Western Kentucky, and Ty Buchanan from Southern California would eventually become either full-time or part-time starters in their Red Raider careers.
A year later, McGuire landed Rusty Staats from Western Kentucky. He would become the program's starting center in 2023.
Then, last offseason, Tech brought in Vinny Sciury from Toledo, Davion Carter from Memphis, and Sterling Porcher from Middle Tennessee. All three would start multiple games for Tech in 2024. What's more, Sciury and Carter are both set to battle for starting spots this fall.
Still, there is no substitute for home-grown offensive linemen. That's where Tech has to get better. The problem is that young offensive linemen usually don't arrive on campus physically ready to compete in the Big 12.
That's why promising home-grown talents such as Jacob Ponton, Ellis Davis, and Nick Fattig have yet to step into starting roles despite being highly regarded by those inside the program. Teams must allow young players of that size time to properly develop the technique and the body to be able to handle starting in a power conference. Therefore, when a program has immediate holes to fill along the offensive front, the portal is where it has to turn.
This offseason, Tech has added three transfer offensive linemen to the mix to help bridge the gap to when the young home-grown talent will be ready to contribute. That includes massive 6-foot-8, 325-pound junior tackle Howard Sampson, a transfer from North Carolina.
Sampson is almost certain to be Tech's starting left tackle this fall, and if the rest of the line shakes out the way many predict, four of the five starting spots could go to players who didn't sign with Texas Tech out of high school.
That's not what McGuire wants to be the norm with his program, though. Therefore, adding high school players of Mays' talent to the pipeline each year is a must. Hopefully, he will like what he sees from Tech this weekend and eventually decide to become a Red Raider because there is no such thing as too many quality offensive linemen for any program.