Big 12 Media Days have arrived, which means the Texas Tech football team is headed to Frisco with a slew of media members — probably far more than usual — looking to get an inside scoop on the Red Raiders for the 2025 season.
Most of those potential storylines, though, have already played out during the offseason. The Red Raiders are in a far different position than this time last year due to its high volume of activity in December.
Here’s a semi-brief refresher on all things Texas Tech to get a leg up on the competition:
Transfer portal, NIL spending puts pressure on Texas Tech football to deliver
The sentiment that Texas Tech has been a disappointment under head coach Joey McGuire is a lie. What isn’t is that the Red Raiders haven’t been nearly as good as McGuire and the team had hoped. They’ve been close, but the sting of having beaten the two teams (Iowa State and Arizona State) who played in the Big 12 championship caused a course correction.
Texas Tech went all-in on the transfer portal in December to completely reshape the roster. Using the last free-for-all period of name, image and likeness before the implementation of the House settlement, the Red Raiders brought in top-tier talent to ultimately shift the narrative around the team.
Now the Red Raiders are expected to be one of the teams in Arlington playing for a conference title and one of the Big 12’s favorites to get to the College Football Playoff. Anything short of that would be considered a failure.
It won’t mean a thing if they don’t have a ring.
Can Texas Tech football’s defense be elite?
While the Red Raiders made strides defensively in the first two years with defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter, it was a complete 180 in 2024. Texas Tech had one of the worst passing defenses in the country last season and the team often had to hope the offense could engage in high-scoring shootouts for any hope to win.
DeRuyter was fired after the season and replaced by Shiel Wood, who came over from Houston, which had a solid-to-elite defense in Wood’s time there. Texas Tech’s main focus with its transfer portal additions was to completely change the defense.
An all-new defense line was brought in and the Red Raiders went deep on defensive backs to make drastic improvements from a year ago. David Bailey, Lee Hunter, Skyler Gill-Howard, Romello Height, Cole Wisniewski, Dontae Balfour, Tarrion Grant, Amier Boyd, AJ Holmes and Brice Pollock lead the new-look unit among those portal additions.
There’s legitimate depth on the defensive end that should make major improvements from a year ago.
How Texas Tech football is replacing all-time leading rusher Tahj Brooks
Tahj Brooks was the workhorse for Texas Tech the last two years, rarely coming off the field and charging his way to the top of the record books as the program’s all-time leading rusher.
Replacing Brooks in a vacuum is nearly impossible. Rather than attempt to do so, Texas Tech will look for a trio of backs — Quinten Joyner, J’Koby Williams, and Cameron Dickey — to sort things out themselves. Whether that’s combining for a by-committee approach or one emerging as the go-to back, there are options and different skill sets among the three to choose from.
How does Texas Tech football’s offense look for 2025?
While defense was the primary concern in the portal, the Red Raiders also needed to completely reshape their offensive line. The unit mega-booster Cody Campbell famously said, “I will” fix it in a tweet after the home loss to Colorado.
Campbell wasn’t lying, bringing in the likes of Howard Sampson, Hunter Zambrano, Cash Cleveland, and Will Jados to go with returners Sheridan Wilson, Davion Carter, and Vinny Sciury — who is set to return from last year’s season-ending knee injury.
Texas Tech’s main source of returning talent comes from the skill positions on offense, namely quarterback Behren Morton and receivers Caleb Douglas and Coy Eakin, who will switch to the slot position this season. The portal also landed Reggie Virgil and tight end Terrance Carter and got Micah Hudson to return to Lubbock after a brief departure to Texas A&M.
The group will be under the instruction of new offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich, who takes over after Zach Kittley became head coach at Florida Atlantic.
Texas Tech football’s Big 12 schedule will determine Red Raiders’ full potential
Once again, nobody is quite sure who will emerge from the pack in the Big 12 Conference this season. The addition of all its new talent certainly has Texas Tech in that conversation, though there are about five other teams in the league who could also come out on top.
Lucky — or unlucky, depending on your perception — for Texas Tech is it’ll get the chance to prove this year’s team is as good as advertised. All the Red Raiders’ biggest matchups are on the road this season, starting with the conference opener at Utah before trips to Arizona State and Kansas State. Texas Tech doesn’t play Iowa State or Baylor, who are also pegged as potential champs this year.
This year’s league schedule is much tougher than last, which could be good and bad for Texas Tech. Bad in the sense it’s a more daunting group of opponents, but good in that the Red Raiders can put doubts to bed in a hurry.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Big 12 Media Days: 5 things to know about Texas Tech football in 2025