Texas Tech's return man, Drae McCray, earned the first Big 12 weekly award for the Red Raiders in 2024, the Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week for week one.

McCray's performance was impressive, with just three chances to return the kick, he posted 165 return yards and a long of 74, setting up the Red Raiders in prime field position.

While McCray's performance was impressive, he was quick to take the spotlight off of himself and put it onto his teammates, both on social media and in an interview setting.

"I think the whole unit deserves credit. The front five guys, like, on the front line, they literally have the toughest job on that unit," McCray said. "I know one of them is definitely Caleb Douglas. He came back, 'Bro, I'm trying to block for you, I'm trying.' Jordan Brown has some good blocks but, like, there's 10 other guys on there working just as hard as I am, if not harder."

McCray, the nation's leader in kick return yards a year ago, has always found ways to impact the game in his Tech career, something that special team's coordinator Kenny Perry takes pride in.

"I think everybody you know from last year this year, it's kind of expected," Perry said. "I was a little shocked, probably after they kept kicking it to him, you know, I think that's going to happen less and less this year.

You can't expect every kick to be a return for a touchdown, but you've definitely got to get in field position. That's kind of the biggest thing on special teams, which I thought the other night, you know, the hidden yardage we gained like 115 yards of hidden yards. So that's pretty big."

For Perry, an emphasis on finding ways to impact the game on special teams has always been something he brings to the table as he enters his third season at Tech, and he is looking to further find ways to impact the game when teams kick away from McCray.

"The part of that is they're getting away from their scheme as well when you're doing that," Perry said. "It doesn't look like much, but, like even the one that I think that they pooched to Cameron Dickey, I think he got like 10 yards or something like that. Well, guess what? You know, we're getting the ball now on the on the 35 or 40 yard line, instead of the 20 or the 25, so that's hidden yardage."

While McCray looks to continue to make an impact on the team, he is nearing the top-ten all-time of Texas Tech kickoff return men, just 17 return yards from Rodney Blackshear, who sits in tenth all time at Texas Tech with 899 yards.

Despite the chase for a legacy here with the Red Raiders, McCray is critical and wants to push himself to be the best version of himself as possible.

"Honestly, I'm pretty critical of myself, and I look back and I'm like, Man, I could have done this, and it probably went a little bit longer," McCray said. "So I think, I think I did a decent job, but I'm pretty critical of myself, so there's little things that I can do better to maybe, who knows, maybe take one and score."