Joey McGuire’s Texas Tech Red Raiders won the Big 12 last season, beat BYU 34-7 for the title and earned a first-round bye as the No. 4 seed in the College Football Playoff. Then Oregon shut them out 23-0 in the Orange Bowl quarterfinal. The ceiling is still unproven, but the floor moved: Texas Tech is a heavyweight now.
Big 12 Coach Embraces Villain Role in College Football
Influential billionaire Cody Campbell has heavily backed the Red Raiders in the transfer market and Texas Tech has become a major force in the NIL and revenue-sharing space, leading to resentment in some quarters in college football.
The resentment turned concrete this spring. Texas Tech stood behind quarterback Brendan Sorsby through a gambling investigation that ended with the NCAA ruling him permanently ineligible, and the response was swift: Georgia and Nebraska said they would not schedule the Red Raiders in any sport, and Michigan canceled a volleyball match. Sorsby had wagered roughly $90,000 across three schools, including 40 bets involving his own Indiana team.
After the Big 12 went to federal court seeking to punish both him and the school, Sorsby dropped his suit and declared for the NFL supplemental draft. The league then declined to hold one at all, citing game-integrity concerns, and his 2026 season disappeared entirely. The damage to Texas Tech was already done.
On Monday, On3’s Brett McMurphy revealed that McGuire urged his team to lean into its villain role in college football.
“We’re the most hated team in college football. And I absolutely love it,” McGuire said.
In his fourth season at the helm, McGuire led the team to a 12-2 record, their first double-digit win season since the 2008-2009 season. He has led the Red Raiders to a 35-18 record, a marked improvement for a program that went 71-77 from 2010 through 2021.
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During Monday’s segment of the “Joel Klatt Show,” Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt ranked the Red Raiders No. 11 in his preseason poll.
“Even though they went through this Brendan Sorsby saga and yes, he was a good player and could have certainly elevated their offense, which they desperately needed based on that offensive performance against Oregon, this is still a very good roster and it’s clearly the best team in the Big 12,” Klatt said. “I think this team should be right back into the Big 12 championship game.
“They will not get beat in terms of spend; that’s their mantra. They will not be beat on a player. They got some really good players. Schedule’s lined up for them to be at least 11-1 if not 12-0. The question for them is, are they gonna be able to level up when they go up against an elite team like an Oregon, particularly on the offensive side of the ball?”
Despite the Sorsby setback, the Red Raiders are favorites to win the Big 12 again this fall, with last year’s backup Will Hammond stepping in under center. McGuire’s next challenge will be to win a College Football Playoff game and compete with the country’s elite on the field.
