The Texas Tech football program is currently holding its spring practice sessions. That is providing an opportunity for head coach Joey McGuire and his staff to get a first look at the massive group of transfers that became Red Raiders this offseason.
Tech has brought in 17 players from the portal thus far to make the No. 3 transfer class in America, according to 247Sports.com. Of those 17 players, four will play along the line of scrimmage on the defensive side of the ball.
Arguably, the biggest defensive line addition Tech made this offseason (both figuratively and literally) is UCF transfer nose tackle Lee Hunter. A senior in 2025, he checks in at 6-foot-4 and 325 pounds, bringing some much-needed bulk to the middle of the Red Raiders' defensive front.
Now, the coaching staff is getting a chance to see what type of athlete Hunter is, and in the team's most recent spring scrimmage, he did something rather impressive. According to McGuire, who was speaking about the scrimmage on his weekly "What's Next: With Joey McGuire" podcast, Hunter ran 16.5 miles per hour on a play as he tried to run down one of the Red Raider running backs. That is extremely fast for a player of his size to be moving.
Is your fridge running? Ours is.
— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) April 1, 2025
Lee Hunter aka @The_Fridge7 clocked 16.5 mph (at 320 lbs) during last Saturday's scrimmage. pic.twitter.com/mg7EbscL3A
"So that was fun to see," McGuire said. "He's a guy that can really dominate. You're going to have to double-team him, which means, if you're going to double-team him, then you're going to have to single-block somebody like A.J. Homes, or Skyler [Gill-Howard], or Romello [Height], or Charles Esters. And if you don't double-team him, then he's going to live in the backfield."
Last season, Hunter earned second-team All-Big 12 honors at Central Florida. He was credited with 45 tackles (19 solo) in 12 games. He was also tied for the team lead with 9.5 tackles for loss.
In three seasons with the Knights, he totaled 131 tackles (66 solo) and 5.0 sacks. Now, he is going to be asked to anchor a rebuilt Red Raider defensive line in 2025 as Tech looks to finally field a defense that is capable of being one of the best in the Big 12 after decades of struggling on that side of the ball.
While fans won't get to see him in action until this fall (except for those who attend this month's Spring Game on April 19 at Jones AT&T Stadium), updates like this one about Hunter are certain to get Red Raiders everywhere fired up for football season. Hunter is the type of athlete that Tech has rarely had on the defensive line, and he should make a huge difference in the trenches in 2025.