Not a ton of motion on the recruiting trail this week, but we have a handful of new offers to review and some exceptional examples of athleticism from a few of the 2025 verbal commitments.

We cover all of that and more...it's Friday, let's Flare.

Red Raider Basketball Progress Report

McCasland Notebook: Red Raiders look to snap skid against UCF

Red Raider Recruiting Six-Pack: TTU offers 2025 Vandergrift's Morgan

Takeaways from Texas Tech's 66-59 win over Central Florida

McCasland Notebook: Red Raiders slug it out against UCF

Mahomes' Tech timeline spans historic memories, promising future

Numbers of Note: Kansas

Takeaways from Texas Tech's 79-50 win over Kansas

McCasland Notebook: Red Raiders knock off Jayhawks

2026 forward Davion Adkins visits Texas Tech for win over UCF

Williams' development paying off in thick of Big 12 season

Texas Tech Position Outlook: Outfield

2026 guard Alex Barther up to 7 offers including TTU

RRS TV: Hitchcock AD/HC Craig Smith

Ranchview WR Terry Shelton on TTU offer: "It was a blessing"

Tadlock Notebook: Red Raiders head to Arlington to open season

2026 wing Isaiah Ward has strong connections with Texas Tech's staff

Coach Snapshot: Offensive Line Coach Clay McGuire

McCasland Notebook: Warren Washington update & keys against Iowa State

The coaches handed out five (5) new offers this week and we saw some spring practice invitations go out to underclassmen prospects.

The coaches became the first program to offer Layton Christian Academy (Utah) defensive tackle Jobe Tuafale this week. The 6-foot-4, 350-pound defensive lineman is originally from Brisbane, Austrailia and now holds his first Power Four offer from your Red Raiders. This seems to be another great find by the recruiting staff and coaching staff, as Tuafale just moved from Austrailia to Utah last summer and played his first season at Layton Christian Academy this past Fall.

The coaches offered Keller offensive tackle Kilian Registe this week. The 6-foot-6, 290-pound lineman now holds three (3) offers from your Red Raiders, Arkansas State and Houston. This past season Registe earned District 4-6A All-District Second Team honors.

The coaches offered Ada (Okla.) corner Deante Lindsay this week. The 6-foot-2, 165-pound defender now holds two (2) offers from your Red Raiders and UNLV. Lindsay has also taken unofficial visits to both Kansas State and Oklahoma State.

The coaches offered Prairie Du Chien (Wisconsin) tight end Blake Thiry this week. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound prospect now holds four (4) offers from your Red Raiders, Akron, Coastal Carolina and Ohio. In addition to playing tight end, Thiry is considered a top long snapper by Kohl's Kicking and he competes on the Varsity Wrestling team at Prairie Du Chien.

The coaches offered Lakeside (GA) defensive tackle Makhi Williams-Lee this week. The 6-foot-2, 270-pound defensive lineman now holds five (5) offers from your Red Raiders, Connecticut, Georgia State, Massachusetts and Troy. This past season Williams-Lee finished with 77 tackles, 22 tackles for loss, 10 sacks, four (4) quarterback hurries, two (2) fumble recoveries and three (3) fumbles forced.

Spring practices start in about a month and the coaches started to share these invitation edits with various underclassmen prospects.

This post came from Gladewater 2026 running back Carsin Cooper. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound sophomore holds one (1) early offer from UTSA with interest from Texas Tech and other programs.

Cooper finished the season with 161 carries for 1,263 yards and 11 touchdowns.

When it is all said and done, 2024 signee Edward Smith will need time to develop before seeing the field, but looking at his size, frame and overall athleticism it seems like he could become an 'underrated' type a few years from now.

There are simply not a ton of 6-foot-5, 250-pound kids moving around like this, and we all know that a prospect's athleticism is the foundation of interest from this Texas Tech recruiting staff.

I saw the video above this week and knew that we had to talk about Smith more this week.

How about 2025 verbal commitment Brock Golwas getting back on the track with a 6.65 second hand-timed 60 meter?

This young man is still a junior and already has an impressive frame at 6-foot-1, 210-pounds. He should only continue growing throughout the year and possesses the sideline to sideline speed the coaches are stockpiling at the linebacker position.

This might be the best highlight of the week, and it came during warmups during the layup line of Texas Tech quarterback commitment Lloyd Jones III's basketball game earlier this week. In speaking with his coach, he did something similar in the actual game after stealing a pass on defense.

Hitchcock won the 3A State Championship in basketball last year and are looking to repeat with Jones III as part of the squad.

Get you a quarterback who can windmill dunk, am I right?

When someone like Pete Thamel shares a tweet with coaching hire news, then it is usually a done deal. This one came through yesterday morning and while we still have not seen an official announcement or confirmation from the program, we feel confident that Clay McGuire will be named the new Offensive Line coach at Texas Tech.

McGuire is a familiar name for most as he was a player for Texas Tech, then spent time as a graduate assistant under Mike Leach in 2006. In only two (2) years, McGuire had worked his way into the Special Teams Coordinator role and a year later he was named the program's Running Backs coach.

After the 2009 season, McGuire went with Ruffin McNeil and Lincoln Riley to East Carolina where he was the running backs coach and special teams coordinator for one (1) season.

When Mike Leach returned to college football and took over the Washington State program, McGuire joined him as the Offensive Line coach, a role he held for five (5) seasons.

McGuire returned to Lubbock under then head coach Kliff Kingsbury for one (1) season in 2018 as the program's Co-Offensive Coordinator and Running Backs coach. After that season, McGuire has been the Offensive Line coach at three (3) different programs - Texas State, USC and Washington State.

Overall, McGuire brings experience to the role for Texas Tech. His predecessor also played at Texas Tech and played the position, but the main difference is that McGuire has had this role at various Power Four programs and should bring a new perspective to the building and into the Offensive Line room.

Another aspect to McGuire as a college coach is his recruiting accumen. In his time at Texas Tech, McGuire was known to get involved with several high profile recruits and the feedback was always positive. This is something that most likely aligned with head coach Joey McGuire and the current staff in Lubbock.

With his years of experience coaching running backs, McGuire will definitely help the offensive side of the ball with Coach Kenny Perry and Coach Zach Kittley as well.

I do believe this will turn out to be a good hire for what the Red Raiders need right now. It could also been exactly what McGuire needs right now, a familiar place and a return to West Texas and his roots after moving around to 3-4 different programs over the past five years.

He did it again, former Texas Tech quarterback and now NFL legend Patrick Mahomes won his third Superbowl this week. In true fashion, Mahomes and his team received the ball in overtime with a do or die situation - score a field goal to tie and a touchdown to win the whole thing. It felt like a very slow, defensive led game for the majority of the game, but when Mahomes ran onto the field with a chance to win the game it felt inevitible that he would lead them to a touchdown and the win.

In six (6) seasons playing in the NFL, Mahomes has set a wild bar for himself and the Chiefs. He has been to four (4) Superbowls and has now won three (3) of them. In six seasons, he has never finished worse than the NFC Championship Game. Even the two NFC Championship games they lost, both were lost in overtime. He has won the division in all six seasons played. Maybe the best statistic is his playoff success, as Mahomes now has a 83-percent playing winning percentage (!).

Although everything listed above in incredibly impressive, this snippet from Neil Paine is possibly the most impressive of all these achievements/stats...

As I mentioned earlier, it seemed inevitable when Mahomes jogged onto the field in overtime with a chance to win the game. He is on a completely different level and there is not even a debate as to who the best player in the game is today. Not just the best quarterback, the best player in the NFL is Patrick Mahomes...no debate.

The storyline around the Chiefs all season was how they did not look like the Superbowl winning team from last season. Mahomes' receivers were not performing, not catching the ball, the offense was not as explosive, etc. The best players elevate those around them and Mahomes did just that, turning a rookie receiver into a 1,000 yard performer in Rashee Rice.

Mahomes is 28 years old and now has three (3) Superbowls. He is on pace with the greats, Tom Brady and Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw, in terms of Superbowl wins and overall playoff success...AT ONLY 28 YEARS OLD!

The impact this has for the Texas Tech Football program is not to be ignored either. Mahomes loves Texas Tech and recruiting is funny with how recruits react or 'see' things from their perspective. It is 2024 and we are interviewing 2025, 2026 prospects for the most part. These are kids who most likely never watched Mahomes play quarterback for Texas Tech, but they have watched Mahomes dominate the NFL for the past six (6) years and now they know where he chose to play college football.

On Sunday evening alone, at least a dozen recruits were retweeting Texas Tech / Mahomes related content. That brand recognition and even the potential impact on a recruit's perspective on Texas Tech is almost immeasurable.

Congrats to Mahomes, a true legend of the game and easily one of my favorite players - regardless of college or NFL team - to ever watch play the game of football.

I also want to shoutout my colleague Jarrett Ramirez, who put together a very good recap of Mahomes' Texas Tech timeline from his commitment to the NFL. If you have not had the chance, then please take a few minutes to read through this one.

Even if we thought this would eventually happen, these three (3) former Red Raiders went out and earned their invitation to the NFL Combine. This is a big deal as all three (3) players - DE Myles Cole, DB Dadrion Taylor-Demerson and DB Tyler Owens - competed in the Hula Bowl, Shrine Bowl and Senior Bowl where dozens of NFL scouts were able to see them on the practice field and in the games.

The postseason bowl games are definitely great, but competing at the NFL Combine is the best way to ensure your name is called during the NFL Draft.

Cole's size and measurables will jump off the page at the combine.

Demerson and Owens' speed will be on full display at the combine.

This is also great for the program, because anytime you have three (3) players competing at the combine it is a topic of conversation. Every single recruit worth their weight has a long term goal of playing in the NFL. As a coach, if you can not only talk through 'how' your program can help them achieve that goal, but you can specifically point to guys like Mahomes, Jordyn Brooks, more recently Tyree Wilson and now these three headed to the NFL Combine it helps a ton when fighting off other P4 programs around the state.

Speaking of Taylor-Demerson and Owens, their speed is not just something we can 'see' on the field, both players have verified speed.

Tracking Football is a company we have mentioned here at RRS before and is a company many college football programs use to help evaluate talent, including your Red Raiders.

Of the 321 prospects invited to the NFL Combine, both Taylor-Demerson and Owens sit among the Top 10 prospects when it comes to their 100m and 200m times respectively.

It seems odd typing this in the year 2024, but the NCAA and powers that be in college football are now seriously considering allowing helmet communication moving forward. It was something teams were allowed to 'try' during this past bowl season and Texas Tech was a team that tried this during the Independence Bowl.

I believe this would help the Texas Tech offense a ton. We always hear that the quarterback is in full control of the offense, in terms of reading the defense and checking into other plays, etc. That being said, the Red Raiders have not gone through a full season with a healthy quarterback in what seems like forever. So when you have a younger, inexperienced quarterback in the game, how much would it help to have coach in your ear helping you to call the plays, giving you advice, etc?

I hope this gets done rather quickly, but you never know. It is a no-brainer to add this into the game and we should see something on this soon.

Putting this into perspective, the article points out that the NFL started to allow helmet communication in 1994 and added the same capability for one defensive player per team in 2008. The NFL introduced tablets on the sidelines in 2014.

The article also features this quote from Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire, whose Red Raiders were one of six teams to trial the technology during this past bowl season...

“We practiced with it four times going into the game, and it was probably one of our cleanest operations when it comes to the sideline and communication,” Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire said of the Red Raiders’ use of CoachComm

There are more committee meetings that need to happen before the season, but we are closer than ever before to finally modernizing the college game. It is funny or somewhat sad that it is happening after the whole Michigan/Connor Stallions saga, where the now National Champions went on to win three (3) games without Stallions and without their head coach after the penalties were handed down.

We look around the new-look conference this week after more new commitments were made, the early signing day has come and gone, the rankings are updated and the Red Raiders retain the top class in the conference.

With the New Year and the early signing day completed, we flip the page from reviewing the 2024 recruiting classes around the conference to focus on the 2025 recruiting classes around the conference.

*listed in current Big 12 rankings order, new programs now officially added to the Rivals rankings list - plus a new 'look' or design from the Rivals team on these lists/pages. The National Team confirmed these conference rankings will be officially updated once the basketball and baseball seasons conclude later this spring.

*Programs without a commitment in the 2025 class to date...

Kansas State

Houston

Colorado

Thank you for reading, have a great weekend!