After the confetti fell inside AT&T Stadium and coach Joey McGuire hoisted a trophy he had been chasing for four years, he fought back tears as he embraced billionaire board chair Cody Campbell, general manager James Blanchard, athletic director Kirby Hocutt and the many stakeholders who helped set up this program for a historic season.
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Texas Tech assembled what can now be called one of the greatest transfer portal classes of this evolving era of NIL and transfers in college football, a group of 22 incoming transfers that yielded 11 players who started in the Big 12 title game, four first-team All-Big 12 performers and a projected first-round draft pick in pass rusher David Bailey.
[Texas Tech General Manager James] Blanchard believed from the beginning that the Big 12 was not equipped to compete with what the Red Raiders had assembled.
"Mission accomplished," Blanchard told ESPN. "It's proof of concept. ..."
Texas Tech's more than $25 million investment for its 2025 roster, blending proven returning starters with high-profile newcomers, created boom-or-bust stakes and a seasonlong narrative -- that the Red Raiders were desperately trying to buy their way to the top.
