Blog Article
ALL-IN: Why Texas Tech Football Is THE Most Fascinating Team of 2025
The championship window just swung wide open at Texas Tech in Lubbock.
After dropping $10+ million on the nation’s #1 transfer portal class, Texas Tech has officially pushed all its chips to the center of the table—transforming from a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 team into a legitimate College Football Playoff contender overnight.
This is the story of college football’s most audacious offseason gamble and why the Red Raiders are about to shock the entire country.
Joey McGuire called his 8-5 season a “complete failure” and then went nuclear in the transfer portal.
When a coach publicly labels an 8-win season a “failure,” two things are happening:
- The expectations inside the building are sky-high
- Bold moves are coming
Bold doesn’t begin to describe what happened next. According to reports, Texas Tech assembled the most aggressive transfer class in college football history, spending north of $10 million (double their original budget) to secure elite talent nationwide.
Why such a dramatic approach?
- Tech’s championship window is NOW (expanded playoff creates opportunity)
- The Air Raid offense needs just a few more weapons
- The defense desperately needed immediate upgrades
- The Big 12 title race is wide open without Texas and Oklahoma
“This place has never gone to the Big 12 championship or won one. Everybody from the top down is wanting one in Lubbock, Texas. I can’t imagine. It’ll be a dream. But it’s gonna be a dream come true, because it’s about to happen.”
—James Blanchard, Texas Tech General Manager (who recently turned down the same position at Notre Dame)
When your GM turns down Notre Dame to stay at Texas Tech, something special is brewing in West Texas.
The return of QB Behren Morton gives Tech the most important ingredient for a title run: stability under center.
The quarterback position has been a revolving door in Lubbock since the Patrick Mahomes era ended.
That changes in 2025, with Behren Morton returning as the full-time starter after throwing for 3,335 yards and 27 touchdowns in 2024, despite battling shoulder issues during parts of the season.
Morton’s experience running the Air Raid offers three critical advantages:
- He’s already shown he can produce at an elite level (37.6 points per game in 2024)
- He knows the system inside and out (accuracy and decision-making will improve)
- He’s fought through adversity and earned the respect of the locker room
With a healthy Morton directing traffic, the Red Raiders offense should be even more explosive than the unit that averaged nearly 463 yards per game last season.
The $10 million transfer haul brought in game-changers at EVERY position.
Most programs are happy to land one or two impact transfers each offseason.
Texas Tech signed SEVENTEEN.
The Red Raiders’ transfer class is mind-boggling in both quality and quantity:
- 5-star WR Micah Hudson returns after briefly transferring to Texas A&M
- TE Terrance Carter (Louisiana) brings 48 catches, 689 yards, and 4 TDs
- WR Reggie Virgil (Miami OH) was an all-conference performer
- RB Quinten Joyner (USC) averaged 7.6 yards per carry in 2024
- OL Will Jados (Miami OH) adds 40 career starts to the offensive line
- Multiple defensive backs with length and experience to boost a secondary that struggled in 2024
This isn’t just adding depth—it’s a complete roster overhaul with immediate championship aspirations.
The defense must improve if Tech wants to become more than just the Big 12’s most entertaining team.
Let’s be real: Texas Tech’s defense was a disaster in 2024.
- 34.9 points allowed per game (121st nationally)
- 460.2 yards allowed per game
- 308.1 passing yards allowed per game (4th-worst in FBS)
No offensive firepower can overcome a defense that leaks points like a sieve. That’s why Tech’s transfer strategy focused heavily on adding length and experience in the secondary.
The defensive improvements must happen quickly. Tech’s schedule includes challenging road games at Utah, Houston, Colorado, Kansas State, and West Virginia.
But with eight defensive starters returning plus the transfer additions, this unit has nowhere to go but up.
The 2025 schedule provides a runway for success with three straight home games to open the season.
When you’re integrating 17 transfers, the schedule matters—and Texas Tech’s 2025 slate sets up perfectly for early momentum:
- 3 consecutive home games to start (Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Kent State, Oregon State)
- Avoids Oklahoma and Texas in conference play
- Key home games against Kansas and Oklahoma State
- Strategic open dates before challenging road trips
The Red Raiders also benefit from two open dates (Sept. 27 and Nov. 22) that provide valuable rest and preparation time before critical stretches.
If Tech can navigate early-season chemistry challenges, they’ll be battle-tested and fully integrated by the time the most critical games arrive in November.
Will Texas Tech’s $10 million gamble pay off with the program’s first-ever Big 12 championship?
National media is already buzzing about Texas Tech’s potential:
- CBS Sports listed Tech among the Big 12’s top five championship contenders
- The Mercury News projected the Red Raiders to finish second in the conference
- Multiple power rankings place Tech in the upper echelon of the reconfigured Big 12
But expectations are dangerous in college football, especially for a program that hasn’t won a conference title since the Southwest Conference era.
The question isn’t whether Texas Tech has assembled championship-caliber talent (they have). It’s whether they can transform a collection of transfers and returning stars into a cohesive unit capable of winning in hostile environments against elite competition.
The Red Raiders are now officially the most fascinating team in college football—a program that has decided its time is now and is willing to spend whatever it takes to make it happen.
We’ll know if the $10 million gamble paid off in December.
But one thing’s already certain: Texas Tech’s “all-in” approach has changed the game in college football’s NIL era.
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