Story by
Texas Tech football's Davion Carter to utilize NCAA waiver, return to Red Raiders in 2025
- Story by
- Texas Tech football's Davion Carter to utilize NCAA waiver, return to Red Raiders in 2025
The Texas Tech football team will have another veteran body on the offensive line for the 2025 season, this one coming from an unlikely source.
Tech announced Friday that Davion Carter will return to the Red Raiders for another season. Carter will be utilizing the blanket waiver from the NCAA that grants another year of eligibility to all players who played one or more years at the non-NCAA level who would have exhausted their eligibility in 2024.
Advertisement
Carter played two seasons at Northwest Mississippi Community College prior to his time at Memphis. He transferred to Texas Tech ahead of the 2024 season and started 12 out of 13 games for the Red Raiders . He earned an 87.5 pass-blocking grade by Pro Football Focus, which has him ranked ninth in the nation among offensive guards. PFF credited Carter with two sacks surrendered in 483 opportunities.
Texas Tech Red Raiders offensive guard Davion Carter (56) blocks Cincinnati Bearcats defensive cornerback Karen Carroll (21) in the first half at Jones AT&T Stadium and Cody Campbell Field.
Carter gives Texas Tech three starters expected back for the 2025 season, joining junior Sheridan Wilson and senior Vinny Sciury, who had to redshirt the 2024 season after suffering a season-ending knee injury in Week 2 against Washington State. Wilson started all 13 games at center this season.
Texas Tech brought in three offensive linemen through the winter transfer portal with the additions of tackle Howard Sampson from North Carolina, tackle Will Jados from Miami (Ohio) and tackle Hunter Zambrano from Illinois State.
Advertisement
While those players arrived through the portal, Tech lost tackles Dalton Merryman (six starts) and Ty Buchanan (seven starts, 11 games played) and guard Kaden Carr to the portal.
The NCAA is granting the addition year of eligibility to former non-NCAA players after a U.S. District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction that will allow Vanderbilt senior quarterback Diego Pavia to return for another year. The injunction, issued Dec. 18, only pertained to Pavia, though the NCAA issued the blanket waiver to have that ruling apply to all athletes.
Sterling Porcher is another Texas Tech player to receive another year of eligibility from the blanket waiver. However, Porcher announced he would be using that additional year elsewhere as he entered the transfer portal.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: OL Davion Carter to return to Texas Tech football in 2025
