Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams writes about why recruiting under Joey McGuire is as important as it’s ever been

The trajectory of the program is up, and not a moment too soon. With the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten turning into twin titans and narrowing the spotlight in college football, it’s put the Pac-12 out of business and weakened the Big 12. In the aforementioned 247Sports composite index, not counting departing members Texas and Oklahoma, the next best class in the Big 12 behind Tech’s are TCU’s and Central Florida’s at No. 33 and No. 34. To anyone being honest, that’s worrisome.

Against the increasingly southeast- and midwest-centric focus in college football, all Big 12 teams are going to be challenged to recruit as well as their best efforts in the recent past. That goes for Texas Tech, too. Last off-season, McGuire and his staff were able to sell not only a bowl win over an SEC team, but victories against Texas and Oklahoma, two opportunities that no longer will be available.

We’ll see how it plays out over the next several years.

Some of you know that Patrick Mahomes started training with a group out of Tyler when he was 9 and that group started with Bobby and Brandon Stroupe, who are below. It’s definitely interesting to hear them talk about training Mahomes and how they do not recommend that your child focus on just one sport until he or she are a junior in high school. The number of people who have told us that Youssouf has to start focusing on one sport is too many to count and we just have not done that and he doesn’t want to do it and I know it’s made him better.

Workouts.

Kansas City Star’s Alison Booth, Irvin Zhang, and Emily Curiel road-tripped to Lubbock to write about the love that Lubbock has for Patrick Mahomes. Good stuff.

I’ll have a preview of the men’s game against UCF tomorrow (tip-off is at 3:00 p.m.), but the Lady Raiders host UCF as well tomorrow with their tip-off at 7:00 p.m.

This is something new. The official site did a Q&A with head coach Joey McGuire and here’s a sample:

@D3vJaVu (X): What kind of offense are we going to run this year? Are we turning more into an air raid with Micah Hudson, Josh Kelly and crew or are we going to go with more of a run-type offense with Tahj (Brooks) and crew? Or are we trying to keep it more balanced?

“I think the No. 1 type of offense is keeping Behren Morton healthy. He’s having a great start to his offseason. I think you’re going to see a very explosive offense to where it’s run or pass, and you can do either and take what they give you. We had to become more of a run offense because of our injuries to our quarterbacks, but I also think we’ve added Josh Kelly, Caleb Douglas and Micah Hudson and have guys on this on the team like Coy Eakin. I’m also really excited to see the three young guys in T.J. West, D.J. Crest and Kelby Valsin. I think that our wide receiver room’s different, and I also I think we have one of the best rooms in the country when it comes to tight ends. So, I think we have a chance to be really explosive, but it all starts with being better up front and keeping that quarterback healthy.”

24/7 Sports’ Mike Roach writes about the rise in recruiting under Joey McGuire. I kind of forgot that the other National Signing Day was this week, it was uneventful for Texas Tech. This is pretty longform so worth a read today or over the weekend:

“We have a personnel department that is over recruiting,” McGuire said. “The coaches that came that weren’t maybe at Baylor and and saw Matt Rhule’s design. It’s a little bit different, but very, very similar. They were kind of taken aback, because they may tell me they haven’t watched a guy and we’ve already offered him. I say, ‘Coach, here’s the deal. This personnel department, headed by James Blanchard, all they’re going to do 24/7 is watch film. They’re going to watch more film than anyone. And it takes that off your plate.’ I said, ‘But if you want, we’re going to watch him. But we’re not going to wait to offer these kids to give you give them the thumbs up. It’s going to delay the process.’

“Now we’re on the same line as everybody else. We’re getting in at the same time everybody else is. And that’s not helping us build that relationship a month ahead of everybody else, or two weeks ahead of everybody else. We’re usually first. Our 2025 class right now, there’s probably, if you go back and you look at the history of our classes, there’s usually at some point, four or five guys that haven’t even been evaluated by the industry. So, we’ll be ranked here and then all of a sudden, we’ll offer a kid and it shows up on radars, and then they’ll get evaluated. Next thing you know they are a three-star or four-star guy, and so that’s what I was telling to him.

“I said, just let this play out. If you disagree, I’m gonna listen to you and and we’ll work through it, but you won’t disagree. They will have way more information than you can get in any point of calling a coach. They’re going to have legitimate hand size, they’re going to have arm length. If they don’t have it from a verified place, they’re going to send the coach the video of how to do it.

Red Raider Sports’ Justin Apodaca previews the infield for the baseball. Here’s a bit, but if you like baseball, this is good:

Middle Infield
Texas Tech returns quite a bit up the middle this season with last year’s starting shortstop Tracer Lopez being the headliner but also returning Will Burns and Austin Green, who has shifted to the outfield.

As Lopez seems to have shifted to second base, the Red Raiders have two freshmen that seem to have broken through as TJ Pompey is working towards a starting role at shortstop while Travis Sanders will be an option that can slot in anywhere in the infield. Stripling is also an option for the Red Raiders at second base.

With Lopez and Pompey seeming to be penciled in as the starters for Tech, there are a bevy of options up the middle as Tech head coach Tim Tadlock noted a few weeks ago.