Big 12 Champions: Texas Tech’s Breakthrough Season Feels Like a Launch Point, Not a Peak
Get used to seeing these Red Raiders on the big stage
I just got done writing an article about how wrong I've been since taking this job at OutKick, but one of my best takes has to be about how good the Texas Red Raiders would be this season.
And I have to admit, I didn't even see how good this team would be.
After their dominant win over BYU in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday, the Red Raiders are Big 12 champions and on the precipice of a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff.
This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to the goings-on in Lubbock over the past 12 months.
After a promising 8-5 campaign in 2024, Texas Tech and their power brokers put a plan together to get their team over the hump and into the upper echelon of college football.
It started in the winter transfer portal window, where the Red Raiders and coach Joey Maguire utilized the funding from the customary oil barons out in west Texas to bring in one of the top transfer-portal classes in the country.
But it wasn't just casting a blind net across the highest-rated players available. Tech committed to bringing in one of the best defensive lines in college football.
It paid off (pun intended), giving the Red Raiders a top-five defense by most metrics, including Defensive S+P.
The commitment to the plan is the first proof of concept in the NIL era that this can work at a non-traditional power.
There are still plenty of accomplishments yet to be met.
The Red Raiders still have to prove they belong on the big stage; the College Football Playoff will be the perfect arena to show more proof of concept, and the competition doesn't get any easier.
There will also be plenty of "big boy" recruiting battles that will have to go their way as well. Things are off to a good start in that regard, but more is always better.
For now, though, Texas Tech has taken the first big step toward becoming the next "new-blood" in college football, and their fans should be ecstatic.
This is the culmination of a commitment to excellence from the top down, and we are seeing it come to fruition in real time.
Congrats, Red Raiders!