Folks, Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire seems to truly believe that the Texas Tech Red Raiders will be capable of causing a lot of chaos thanks to their defense yet again this season. And to be honest, I think there’s plenty of reason to believe that.
While a lot of folks will point to all of the defensive talent that Texas Tech is losing, McGuire apparently believes that the Red Raiders have the most impressive defensive tackle in the country returning to Lubbock for this coming season.
Texas Tech’s head coach is looking at AJ Holmes and seeing something that will scare the rest of the Big 12. During a recent press conference, McGuire explained exactly how good he thinks Holmes is.
Joey McGuire believes Texas Tech has the ‘best defensive tackle returning’ in college football thanks to AJ Holmes
“We’re really fortunate, we’ve got an All-American coming back,” McGuire said, praising Holmes. “I think he is the best defensive tackle returning in college football.”
So yeah, Texas Tech’s defensive front may have lost several key pieces from its 2025 Big 12 championship team that made it to the College Football Playoff, but it looks like McGuire isn’t all that worried right now.
“He shows up when we go, when we’re really teeing it up and it’s good on good, man,” McGuire said, discussing Texas Tech’s spring practices. “That dude’s shown up a lot. He can screw up a practice.”
So far, we’ve seen a lot of really impressive potential from Holmes. He’s only been with the Red Raiders for one season and he managed to play in all 14 games last season, racking up 38 combined tackles and nine tackles for loss (along with 4.5 sacks). When he was at Houston for a handful of seasons, Holmes had 67 combined tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss, and 4.5 sacks.
“He is really trending this early like what Lee Hunter did, especially at the end of the year,” McGuire continued. “AJ’s starting to do it right now.”
If Holmes is able to take the sort of leap that McGuire is appearing to project, Texas Tech’s defensive front will be just fine this coming season.
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