Note: This story is featured in the 2026 edition of Dave Campbell's Texas Football's Summer Magazine, which you can order here.

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Texas Tech won its first Big 12 championship in school history in a 2025 season that catapulted the Red Raider football program into the national spotlight and to the Orange Bowl, where they fell to Oregon in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. It was the school’s first outright conference championship since DeWitt Weaver led the program to a Border Conference championship in 1955. 

“In that fourth quarter, when it was clear we were winning the game and becoming Big 12 champions for the first time, you could feel a joy in that stadium,” McGuire said of the experience inside AT&T Stadium in Arlington during the win over BYU. “I’ve received so many letters and notes from fans saying thank you and that they waited their whole life for that moment.” 

But Texas Tech isn’t satisfied with dominating the Big 12 and reaching the College Football Playoff. Red Raider Nation wants more, and the folks in West Texas aren’t shy about their new expectations for Joey McGuire’s program. Texas Tech assistant coach Kenny Perry, who is McGuire’s best friend and a former high school coach himself, laughs about how fans will walk up to him or McGuire and say something along the lines of, “Hey, winning the Big 12 title was great, but we need to do better in the playoffs.” 

And while Perry laughs it off, McGuire internalizes it and uses it as fuel. If the 34-7 win over BYU in the Big 12 Championship game was the culmination of the migration up the college football food chain and the coronation of a new Big 12 king, the 23-0 loss to Oregon in South Florida illustrated how far the Red Raiders must go to win a national championship. 

Some might feel like motivation is a concern for Texas Tech. After all, the Red Raiders are heavy favorites to win the Big 12 because of a huge budget, seemingly unlimited resources, and a roster that, at least on paper, is the class of the conference. But McGuire dismisses that notion. He won multiple state championships as a high school coach and has never struggled to motivate his team to reach new heights. 

“No one other than OU has ever repeated in the Big 12, so we talk about that a lot and want to do that,” he said. “And then when you don’t play at the level you expect in the playoffs, that adds motivation and fuel. People around here are happy that we’re the Big 12 champs, but they also want more. And we want more.” 

Texas Tech is carrying the torch for the Big 12. The only active team in the conference to hold a win in the College Football Playoff is TCU from the Fiesta Bowl win over Michigan in the 2022 season. The Red Raiders will no longer be judged by how they fare in conference play. They’ll be graded by how they perform once they reach the playoff and how they handle the sport’s elite. 

Those hopes took a hit in late April when news broke that star transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby was under NCAA investigation for sports wagering, including Indiana games when he was there as a redshirt freshman in 2022. He checked himself into a residential treatment program for a gambling addiction, and his eligibility for 2026 was a serious question mark heading into the summer. 

The good news is that Texas Tech’s non-conference schedule consists of home games against Abilene Christian and Sam Houston and a trip to Oregon State. The Big 12 slate doesn’t include games against BYU, Utah, or Kansas State. Tough challenges like Houston, Arizona State, and TCU take place in Lubbock. 

“What is next for Texas Tech is to win a playoff game and then go win the national championship,” GM James Blanchard said. “It’s going to happen. And it could happen this year.”