{"id":70661,"date":"2024-12-22T10:00:08","date_gmt":"2024-12-22T15:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=70661"},"modified":"2024-12-21T18:58:23","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T23:58:23","slug":"is-top-transfer-class-in-play-for-texas-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/12\/22\/is-top-transfer-class-in-play-for-texas-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Top Transfer Class In Play For Texas Tech?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The college football playoff has rightfully grabbed the attention of college football fans. The brand new 12-team playoff has brought everyone home playoff games and electricity to December college football never felt before. However, there is a major story unfolding in the background as teams navigate the first transfer portal window. Texas Tech has made an all-in approach to secure the top transfer portal class for 2025. What are the latest changes with just one week to go in the portal window?<\/p>\n

Latest Red Raider Additions<\/h2>\n

When the transfer portal window opened on December 9th, Texas Tech wasted no time executing its plan to upgrade the roster. Within the first week, they added two former FCS All-Americans to the roster<\/a>. Head coach Joey McGuire was on the record that they would be looking to add around 10 players. It turns out that number was significantly lower. The Red Raider’s pursuit of the top transfer class in the country never slowed down after the first week. With one week left in the fall portal opening, Texas Tech has now added a total of 15 new players to this roster. As of this publication, Texas Tech has the top transfer portal class in all of college football.<\/p>\n

The class has seven, four-star ranked players according to 247. There have been significant additions to both the offensive and defensive lines. On offense, this includes four-star tight end Terrance Carter<\/a> from Louisiana, offensive tackle Howard Simpson<\/a> from UNC, and Will Jados from Miami (OH). The defensive line has seen an even larger influx of talent getting commits from Anthony Holmes<\/a> (who played for new defensive coordinator Shiel Woods at Houston last season), Skyler Gill-Howard<\/a> from Northern Illinois, Lee Hunter from UCF, and top five EDGE player in Romello Height<\/a> from Georgia Tech. New offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich also is getting some new skill positions players to utilize. The new additions are headlined by running back Quinten Joyner from USC.<\/p>\n

Why Now?<\/h3>\n

Let’s not make any mistake about how this is happening for the Red Raiders. Take one look at the official social media accounts of the Texas Tech football team and the Matador Club, the official NIL collective for the Red Raiders, and it’s clear how Texas Tech is getting it done. They are ready to compete at the top of the Big 12 and are backing up the Brinks truck to do so. But why now? Why, for a team that just put the bow on their first eight-win regular season since 2009 and haven\u2019t won an outright conference title since they were in the Border Conference in 1955, do they have a significant change in player acquisition?<\/p>\n

Frustrations were mounting after Texas Tech was handled mightily by Colorado in a 41-27 loss<\/a>. Cody Campbell, one of the school\u2019s biggest boosters and co-founder of the Matdor Club, was (like most fans) expressing frustrations on X. However, it was one response to a Tech fan that might have changed the course of the Texas Tech program for the next five years. The fan (in a now-deleted post) commented on Campbell’s original post with \u201cBuy us an oline.\u201d Campbell\u2019s simple and powerful response was, \u201cI will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Double Eagle Bags Dropping<\/h3>\n

For most, it would first appear like Texas Tech has come out of nowhere to pull this off. However, the Red Raiders have been strategic and intentional in keeping pace with the ever-changing world of NIL. Campbell is on the record noting that the Matador Club is run like a business. Campbell and John Sellers are co-CEOs and co-founders of Double Eagle Energy Holdings. Double Eagle is a multibillion-dollar upstream oil and gas company that operates in Texas\u2019 Permian Basin. The Matador Club\u2019s financials are handled in the back office of Double Eagle in the same manner to the company\u2019s billion-dollar property acquisitions.<\/p>\n

According to The Athletic, <\/em>In the 2023-24 academic year, the Matador Club raised and spent around $11 million. That\u2019s not just for football either. The Matador club has signed NIL deals with all the athletes on the men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball teams, the softball, baseball, track, and golf teams. The collective made waves this spring in softball when they were able to lure the best college softball player in NiJaree Canady from Stanford with a NIL package that totaled $1,050,024.<\/p>\n

Not Just The Amount Of Money Making This Work<\/h3>\n

The Matador Club monitors closely trends in the NIL market to ensure they know the going rate for players. In addition, the alignment between the collective, the Texas Tech administrations, and this coaching staff ensures they are all working in step through the entire process. Campbell and James Blanchard (the Red Raiders\u2019 personnel and scouting department) say they have developed a reputation in the market for being reliable with their transactions.<\/p>\n

In a quote provided to The Athletic, <\/em>Campbell stated (in summary) that when Texas Tech hosts a portal target for an official visit, if the player gives a verbal commitment, the collective can get the player\u2019s agent the contract within an hour. Blanchard also told The Athletic, <\/em>\u201cWe\u2019re one of the few schools out there who have never missed a payment…We\u2019ve got a 100 percent on-time (payment) record, and we\u2019ve never broken a contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top Transfer Class = Texas Sized Expectations<\/h3>\n

Texas Tech\u2019s top transfer portal class and recruiting hot streak is considering the program\u2019s history. This is a program that has never played for a Big 12 title. McGuire’s 23 wins in the last three seasons are better than any three-season stretch by the program in over 10 seasons. This program is trending in the direction of a place it has never been before. This program has facilities and a collective alignment that rivals any in all of college football. The expectations are now shifting away from the history of the program.<\/p>\n

These are the actions of a team where 10 wins in 2025 must be considered the floor. The team is losing a combined nine starters next season. But has a settled quarterback room with ton of experience. It also has its defensive captain returning at linebacker Jacob Rodriguez<\/a>. Fans can only hope the Red Raiders are ready to be considered the “hunted” in the Big 12.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The college football playoff has rightfully grabbed the attention of college football fans. The brand new 12-team playoff has brought everyone home playoff games and electricity to December college football never felt before. However, there is a major story unfolding in the background as teams navigate the first transfer portal window. Texas Tech has made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3959,"featured_media":70731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[34602,9474,8318,34603,33040,34606,34534,240,34605],"class_list":["post-70661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-big12","category-featured","tag-cody-campbell","tag-james-blanchard","tag-joey-mcguire","tag-john-sanders","tag-mack-leftwich","tag-quinten-joyner","tag-shiel-wood","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","tag-will-jados"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3959"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70661"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70732,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70661\/revisions\/70732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}