The two new coordinators, offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich and defensive coordinator Shiel Wood, met with the media. I haven’t had a chance to watch. I do know that Wood discusses that he runs a 3-4 defense and is multiple. He calls the linebacker spots “dog” and “anchor” which are the outside linebackers, the dog is standup and rushes, playing the boundary and the anchor plays to the field side and is the linebacker or safety tweener type of player.

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Nathan Giese writes about the Leftwich presser:

“At the time it was pretty difficult to go through and have your career end early like that,” Leftwich said, “But I think now looking back on it, I just got a little bit of a head start. I wouldn’t go back and change anything. I think all those things happened for a reason and has led me to this point.”

What’s followed has been a rapid rise: one year as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Lehman High School, another as a graduate assistant at Incarnate Ward before being elevated to quarterbacks coach in 2018, where he eventually became offensive coordinator and later followed G.J. Kinne to Texas State to assume the same role.

Texas Tech has added Charlotte transfer defensive back Dontae Balfour (6-2/185), finishing the year with 49 tackles, 2 picks and 9 passes defended in 2024, while he had 54 tackles, 1 pick and 10 passes defended in 2023.

I will not be keeping track with a post-by-post of who is in and who is out in terms of players leaving. As you can probably guess, different sites have trackers and On3 and 24/7 Sports have those types of pages dedicated to Texas Tech.

Not football related, but wanted to mention that Texas Tech Baseball announced that former Red Raider baseballer Nolen Hester has been named the Director of Baseball Operations.

“Our staff is excited to bring back Nolen Hester in the role of Director of Baseball Operations,” Tadlock said. “Upon finishing his MBA in Finance last year at Texas Tech last Fall, Nolen expressed an interest in getting involved in college baseball. His baseball background combine with his people skills should fit perfectly and allow him to impact our program.”

Double-T 97.3’s Jamie Lent has a better description of what that means:

As the Director of Operations, Hester will serve a variety of rolls for the Red Raider Baseball team. That includes, setting up travel and food for the team, while also helping with scheduling, charting pitches during the game, and many other tasks.