Texas Tech's Gino Garcia has been a part of the Red Raider football program for two seasons, coming to Lubbock under head coach Joey McGuire in 2022, after playing two seasons at Houston Christian to open his career.

Back in high school, Garcia's entry into kicking on the football field came from just wanting to have fun with his friends, not something that he would believe could take him to Texas Tech.

"I wasn't trying to play college football," Garcia said. "I really wasn't. It was just for fun, I just wanted to play with some friends. Then one day, my coach came up to me and was like 'Hey, some college coaches are asking about you, what do you think?'

I was like 'sure.' I wasn't going to turn it down and it helped me land at Houston Baptist and now I'm here at Texas Tech."

Garcia's long winding road has earned him a scholarship for the final season of his collegiate career with the Red Raiders.

After losing out on the starting kicking job in 2022 to Trey Wolff, Garcia redshirted before winning the starting job in 2023, using that time to help him adjust to the brighter lights in Lubbock compared to his previous stop.

"(The difference) is definitely the pressure. Over there, I mean the competition isn't as high, we've got the best of the best specialists here," Garcia said. "And I mean, kicking in front of 50-60 thousand people every game compared to over there kicking in front of less than 5,000 people a game."

With ample pressure on Garcia on a game to game, quarter to quarter and snap to snap basis, he has had to find a way to manage his mental health, something that he believed was a struggle at some points of his college career, but highlighted by a specific moment last season.

Garcia missed a 50-yard field goal in the dying moments of the eventual Texas Tech loss to Wyoming in the season opener that would've tied the game with just over five minutes remaining in regulation.

"It was hard, it was a hard place to be in mentally," Garcia said. "I was talking to my parents about what life would be like after football, I was already thinking about that.

My parents reminded me that we weren't even halfway through the season and to just enjoy it because so many others would love to be in my shoes. And so I mean, that kind of brought in a different perspective of life and how to be humble in the shoes that I am in right now."

Still, Garcia decided that he would need more to keep his head on straight to remain a key piece for the Red Raiders, seeking out the help of sport psychologists to form a stronger mental framework that is key for his position.

"I've been meeting with sports psychologists and that's helped me out a bunch. I mean, it was something that brought in a different way of thinking of how to kick," Garcia said. "I had only visited with the sports psychologists here and there before, I didn't take much importance in it, and then I actually started doing it.

This whole spring and then this whole summer, I've been doing every week, just because I know how important it is for a kicker to just be in the right headspace."