After making a historic splash in the 2025 transfer portal, the Texas Tech football program is swinging for the fences in the 2026 high school recruiting class. Trying to strike while their name is hot and while the NIL money is flowing, the Red Raiders are in on some of the top prospects in the nation.
One player to keep an eye on is 4-star offensive lineman Noah Best. A native of Midlothian, Texas, the 6-foot-3, 290-pound prospect recently released a post on X that said "Where's home" with the logos of Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Missouri, SMU, and Kansas State listed at the bottom of the graphic.
In addition to those schools, Best has offers from the likes of Arizona State, Auburn, Arkansas, Baylor, LSU, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Texas, UCLA, Wisconsin, and others. However, he appears to have narrowed his focus, and the Red Raiders remain in play.
Where’s 🏠?
— Noah Best (@NoahBest76) April 24, 2025
@CoachVenables @OU_CoachB@CoachBrianLepak @CoachKli @GarinJustice @rhettlashlee @CoachDrinkwitz @CoachJonesB @JoeyMcGuireTTU @ClayMcGuireTTU pic.twitter.com/m3m3h56FUA
Ranked the No. 398 overall player in the class of 2026, Best is the No. 35 interior offensive lineman in America and the No. 55 player in Texas, according to 247Sports. That site has one expert who has logged a prediction that he will land at Oklahoma, but only one such projection is far from a guarantee.
The Red Raiders have been recruiting Best for quite some time. In fact, they were the first program to offer him a scholarship, a development that occurred back in January of 2024.
Now, the plan is for Best to take a visit to Lubbock this offseason. Hopefully, he will be blown away by the new facilities the program lives in, and he will want to become a Red Raider.
Tech is trying to land some big fish along the offensive line in the class of 2026. Along with Best, 13 other offensive linemen in the class currently hold offers from head coach Joey McGuire.
Additionally, 5-star offensive lineman, Felix Ojo, the No. 7 overall player in the class of 2026, recently took a visit to Lubbock, where he reportedly came away very impressed with the Texas Tech program. To see Tech fishing in that deep of a pond is exciting for fans who are hoping that years of offensive line futility will soon be just a thing of the past.
The hope is that players of the caliber of Best and Ojo start to consider Texas Tech as a viable destination with more regularity. When that happens and when Tech starts to win some of those high-profile battles, then we will know that things have truly turned around for McGuire.