Texas Tech Spring football is already underway in 2025. Much like the rest of college football, the Spring calendar is morphing. Coaches are trying to figure out what works best for their program. Plenty of teams have canceled Spring games. For head coach Joey McGuire, he has spread the practices out over two months. The first practice occurred on March 10th with the Spring game not being played until April 19th. That spreadout calendar was in place before the unexpectedly early start to Spring Break. This was thanks to green flames exploding through manhole covers on campus (fortunately, no one was injured). But there are some key storylines to pay attention to over the next two months in Lubbock.
Offensive Backfield Situation
The biggest replacement the Red Raiders are making for the 2025 season is the loss of career-rushing leader Tahj Brooks. The competition for RB1 will be fierce. None of the potential candidates to replace Brooks starts with a leg-up on the competition. Some of the names in the mix will be J’Koby Williams, transfer from USC Quinten Joyner, Cameron Dickey, and Cam’Ron Valdez. Does competition among four players produce a clear number one? Or does this group transform the rushing attack into a committee approach?
The other position with plenty of eyes on it for Texas Tech Spring football is the health of quarterback Behren Morton. His shoulder issues have lingered now for two full seasons. In 2023, he played the final nine games with a grade-3 sprain to the AC joint. He was shut down six practices into Spring practice last year. No surgery was recommended after consultation with the team medical staff and two orthopedic surgeons. Morton did start every game in 2024. However, he had surgery on the same shoulder at the end of the regular season. Morton said his shoulder wasn’t an issue last season and the surgery was elective. He will spend all of Spring ball rehabbing the injury. Morton’s health is paramount in 2025 if Texas Tech wants to make the jump to Big 12 contender. Expect Will Hammond to take the QB1 reps in practice this Spring.
Trench Play On Both Sides Of The Ball
Texas Tech Spring football has begun with a different national spotlight on this program. Thanks to securing one of the best transfer portal classes in the nation, some extra eyes on this team normally would be paying attention elsewhere. The most notable additions to this team came in the way of big guys on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Offensively, this team is returning six veteran starters. Expect plenty of competition for those starters to hold those spots as this team brought in tackle Howard Sampson from North Carolina, tackle Will Jados from Miami (Ohio), and tackle Hunter Zambrano from Illinois State.
Defensively, the transfers brought will be the key players in improving a porous Red Raider defense. Lee Hunter (UCF) was a second-team All-Big 12 member in 2024. Skyler Gill-Howard (Northern Illinois) was a third-team All-MAC selection last year, Anthony Holmes Jr. (Houston) is another in-conference transfer after starting all 12 games for Houston in 2024, and three-time transfer Romello Height is most recently coming from Georgia Tech where he started 12 games for the Yellow Jackets last season. All of these highly productive players are poised to help raise the floor of the defense.
Texas Tech Spring Football Debut Of New Coordinators
At the end of the 2024 season, McGuire faced his biggest challenge yet as the head man for the Red Raiders. He had to replace both his offensive and defensive coordinators as Zach Kittley took the head coaching job at FAU and Tim DeRuyter was fired for having one of the worst defenses in football. McGuire brought in Mack Leftwich from Texas State to take over the offense while the Red Raiders swooped in fellow Big 12 coordinator Shiel Wood from Houston.
Leftwich was hired following two seasons at Texas State where he developed some of the country’s best offenses. The Bobcats led the Sun Belt Conference and ranked in the top 15 nationally for total offense and scoring during the 2023 and 2024 seasons. His number one job will be getting chemistry developed upfront and installing his system.
Meanwhile, Wood, who is now at his eight new schools in the last nine seasons, has the biggest challenge between the two coordinators. But his reputation alone has many fired up for an improving defense. Houston had a top-50-ranked defense in 2024 when the offense was abysmal. Replacing a defense that ranked around 130th in all major categories with a top-50 defense (assuming no drop-off by the offense) is good for anywhere between a two or three-game win improvement. It certainly would have made the difference in Texas Tech playing for a Big 12 title last season.
Main Photo: Katie Perkins/For Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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