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Winning big new for Texas Tech football fans, and newcomers, too
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- Winning big new for Texas Tech football fans, and newcomers, too
David Bailey has won more games in one season with the Texas Tech football team than he won in three years combined at Stanford . The recruiting pitch to Bailey this spring — that the sack-specialist edge defender could be part of something special if he joined the Red Raiders — has come to fruition.
Texas Tech , 10-1, 7-1 in the Big 12 and firmly amid the top 10 in all the national rankings, can earn a spot in the Big 12 championship game for the first time this week. The Red Raiders clinch if Arizona beats Arizona State on Friday, Nov. 28. Failing that, they can nail down a spot by winning at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 29, in a regular-season finale at West Virginia (4-7, 2-6).
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"I'm so grateful for this university," Bailey said on Tuesday. "I was on a phone call with my strength coach back at home, and I was like, 'This is the most fun I've had playing ball.' I had a lot of fun at Stanford, too — great people over there."
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Texas Tech football in 2025, though, has been a whole new world.
"This place is just different," said Bailey, a Lombardi Award finalist who leads the FBS with 12 1/2 sacks. "The resources, the facility, the coaches, the personnel. Everybody's just great over here, so I've just had a blast."
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Texas Tech's spending and success in the NCAA transfer portal is a story that's been revisited often the past several months. The Red Raiders have 22 first-year newcomers from other four-year programs, and most of have been hits.
Texas Tech's David Bailey talks to his family during the senior day ceremony before a Big 12 Conference football game, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, at Jones AT&T Stadium.
The team's success — this being only Tech's second 10-win season in 48 years — is relatively new for many Tech fans. But even among the transfers, it's a wow moment, too. The Stanford teams Bailey was on went 3-9 each of the past three years. The Texas-El Paso teams cornerback Amier Boyd was on went 3-9 each of the past two years and 5-7 the year before that.
"I think about that every day," Boyd said. "It's crazy. Being at UTEP for three years, we didn't have much success during the season, but coming here, it's like everybody's bought in. That's what I see (as) like, the difference in the teams. Everyone's bought in. Everyone trusts each other, loves each other the same. Having those attributes, it can lead to what we're doing now, and I can see that."
Texas Tech's Amier Boyd is seen before a non-conference football game, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025, at Jones AT&T Stadium.
Starting defensive tackle A.J. Holmes came from a Houston team that went 4-8 in back-to-back seasons, and cornerback Brice Pollock from a Mississippi State team that was 2-10 and winless in the Southeastern Conference. Pollock shares the Big 12 lead in interceptions with four.
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Even for players who had known winning before arriving at Tech, it's been something new. Will Jados and Reggie Virgil , season-long starters at offensive guard and wide receiver, respectively, came from a Miami ( Ohio ) program that played in its fourth consecutive bowl game last season. Jados played on all four of those teams, which went 33-21, and Virgil on the last three.
Do they ever take a moment to appreciate their new reality playing key roles on a top-10 team that's been selling out home games?
"All the time," Jados said. "I want to say for the BYU game, for sure. When we get here, we always take a lap around the field, and we stopped for a second and would be, like, 'Man, can you imagine where we were this time last year?'
"The difference ... there was already people in the stands. There was Raiderville and everything like that, where that wasn't a thing. There were more people in Raiderville than were at some of our games in the winter, so that was pretty cool."
Nov 15, 2025; Lubbock, Texas, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders Behren Morton (2) takes a snap from center as offensive lineman Will Jados (76) blocks against the Central Florida Knights in the first half at Jones AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-Imagn Images
Raiderville was the weeklong Tech student campout outside Jones AT&T Stadium that topped out around 2,000 students.
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"Even when we'd get done with our meetings late at night," Jados said, "you'd come out and it's almost like a party out there. It was just awesome. It was a crazy experience for sure."
The Red Raiders rewarded their fellow students by beating Brigham Young 29-7 to wrap up that week. They've kept up the winning since.
In recent weeks, Bailey has been a first-rounder in multiple NFL mock drafts. Along with his personal growth has come the team success.
"The season flew by super fast," he said. "I remember we had this expectation of getting to the championship. And obviously we have to focus on this game that we have at hand. But it's crazy to see how it played out, almost exactly how McGuire had said."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Winning big new for Texas Tech football fans, and newcomers, too
