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How Texas Tech football can make CFP next year: An off-season to-do list
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- How Texas Tech football can make CFP next year: An off-season to-do list
In the first 10 years of the College Football Playoff , Texas Tech football teams have never cracked the weekly ranking of the top 25, much less made the postseason bracket itself.
There ought to be a first time for everything, right? Why not soon?
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The Red Raiders are coming off an 8-4 regular season , their best since 2009, and the CFP bracket is newly expanded this year to 12 teams, giving more schools hope. No, the Red Raiders aren't going to get in this year, but let's discuss what has to happen for Tech to make its CFP debut to end the 2025 season.
If the Red Raiders are going to make that happen, they need to check off these boxes on an off-season to-do list.
Make a seamless transition to new offensive and defensive systems
That's not much to ask, right? Get serious. Of course it is. Hard enough to pull off with the personnel on one side of the ball. Tech will have to do it across the entire team.
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As soon as the regular season ended, Tech coach Joey McGuire dismissed defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter and replaced him with Shiel Wood, a 42-year-old who has called the shots on highly ranked defenses the past four years at Army, Troy, Tulane and Houston.
Then Florida Atlantic selected Tech offensive coordinator Zach Kittley to be its head coach, leaving a big vacancy on the offensive side of the football.
More: Texas Tech football to hire Houston's Shiel Wood as defensive coordinator | Reports
More: Texas Tech football OC Zach Kittley named new head coach at FAU
Don't be surprised to see more staff shakeups, given new coordinators usually are allowed to bring in one or more position coaches of their choosing.
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That means spring football is going to be a crash course for all involved.
Hang on to Jacob Rodriguez
The Red Raiders' inside linebacker bounced back from an injury-marred 2023 season, racking up a Big 12-leading 117 tackles to go along with five sacks, three turnovers gained and three pass breakups. McGuire said last week he'll encourage Rodriguez to turn pro if NFL scouts say he's ready.
Selfishly, though, if Rodriguez returns as a fifth-year senior, it'll be a big load off the Red Raiders' minds.
More: Success started early for Texas Tech football's Jacob Rodriguez as a youth wrestling star
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Reimagine an offense without Tahj Brooks
The Doak Walker Award semifinalist has rushed for 3,043 yards over the past two seasons, and the Red Raiders' next highest rushing output during that time frame is the 286 yards Cam'Ron Valdez put up last year.
As Brooks departs, several questions arise: Does a new offensive coordinator scrap the counter and inside-zone runs that were Brooks's bread and butter? Will J'Koby Williams, Cameron Dickey or the seasoned running back McGuire wants to add via the transfer portal step forward to claim the job? Do any of those options allow as much heavy-duty running as Brooks provided? The answer to the last question is almost certainly not, so what does that mean for the run-pass ratio?
Related: Tahj Brooks feels the love in his last Texas Tech football home game
Texas Tech's Charles Esters III attends football practice, Friday, Aug. 4, 2023, at the Sports Performance Center.
Find a pass rush
High on the list of unfulfilled expectations this season is production from the edge rushers. Joseph Adedire and Dylan Spencer missed the season with knee injuries. Two players who looked like playmakers earlier in their careers — Isaac Smith for the last month of the 2022 season, Amier Washington during the 2023 Independence Bowl — didn't come on as hoped.
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Last year, McGuire lamented getting only 1 1/2 sacks from inside linebackers. This year, he's gotten only 7 1/2 sacks from the edge rushers, which contributed to Tech ranking next-to-last in the FBS in pass defense. Among the edge players, Harvey Dyson, Charles Esters, Terrell Tilmon and the four above have eligibility remaining.
McGuire's staff will continue to develop them, but the transfer-portal shopping list includes two or three defensive linemen and two or three defensive backs.
Related: How Texas Tech football will handle the looming 105-player roster crunch | Don Williams
Develop a No. 1 receiver
Josh Kelly, with 89 catches for 1,023 yards and five touchdowns, became Texas Tech's first 1,000-yard receiver in six years. Though Kelly's out of eligibility, quarterbacks Behren Morton and Will Hammond aren't, and they expect to have proven pass catchers returning in Caleb Douglas (55-762-6) and Coy Eakin (45-605-6).
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Neither Douglas nor Eakin has been a No. 1 option, but next year could be their time. Receiver is not a portal priority, according to McGuire — or at least wasn't before heralded freshman Micah Hudson decided to rethink his future .
More: Texas Tech football's Coy Eakin a competitor in more than one arena
Get a kicker you can count on
Texas Tech's had excellent kicking four years in a row from Jonathan Garibay, Trey Wolff and Gino Garcia. That can make it easy to take it for granted, but now Garcia and backup kicker Reese Burkhardt are done.
Strong-legged sophomore Stone Harrington has yet to get a shot during his three years in the program. He could win the job, but Tech plans to take a kicker — preferably a combo kicker/backup punter — in the transfer portal. That means one of two things: Best-case scenario, the Red Raiders add an established guy to immediately fill the void. Worst case, they add competition.
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More: Texas Tech football's Gino Garcia balances pair of career ambitions
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: How Texas Tech football can make CFP next year: An off-season to-do list
