Texas Tech knows a bullseye is firmly placed on its back. That’s always the case for a defending conference champion, but it feels amplified heading into 2026 for the Red Raiders in the Big 12. 

The first question commissioner Brett Yormark faced at media days was about the Texas Tech and Brendan Sorsby situation, which he punted on and refused to answer. The most viral clip from the event was a contentious back-and-forth between him and a reporter after another question about Texas Tech. 

The Red Raiders have ruffled feathers. They’ve spent – and played – their way into Big 12 dominance and national prominence. They’re the best shot the Big 12 has of breaking through and winning CFP games on a regular basis. They are the giants in the league and the flag bearer for what is possible outside the SEC and Big Ten if the resources are available. 

Yet, the conference seems to be adversarial. Head coach Joey McGuire noted that the hate isn’t coming from other coaches, at least not all of them. It comes from the other fan bases and sometimes from administrators at other schools. They heard it going into last year, and they’re more than willing to lean into it again in 2026. 

“At Texas Tech, we have a big motto that if there is pressure, if there is noise, attack it, don’t run from it,” starting wide receiver Coy Eakin said on Tuesday. “We want to create the pressure, we don’t want the pressure to attack us, so we’re going to run towards the fire. If there is a target on our back, we say good, that’s how we want it.”

The athletics department has adopted that mantra. The softball team has made back-to-back runs to the national championship game. The football team won its first outright conference championship since the 1950s. The men’s basketball team is a yearly contender in the Big 12, which makes them a contender on the national stage. All in the face of loud scrutiny from inside and outside of the conference. 

But the Red Raiders don’t mind. In fact, they don’t mind being labeled as disrupters. If the rest of the conference, and the rest of the nation, wants to make them the outlaws of college sports, so be it. 

“We’re leaning into it. We kind of love the villain story,” star cornerback Brice Pollock said. “We want everybody to have a target on our back, coming after us. It just gives us an extra chip on our shoulder.”

Texas Tech doesn’t need to search for extra fuel. Sure, they’re the favorites to win the Big 12 despite losing Sorsby at quarterback. But the shutout loss to Oregon in the Orange Bowl to end last season is a shadow that’s hung over the Red Raider football facility all offseason. 

“We got a chip on our shoulder,” McGuire admits. “We did not play well; it was a bad football game against Oregon. We still have that taste in our mouth, and we can’t wait to line up and get that taste out of our mouth.”

A core group of returners such as Eakin, Pollock, Ben Roberts, Terrance Carter, A.J. Holmes, Jon Curry, and a talented and experienced offensive line were bolstered by another strong portal class that includes defensive ends Adam Trick and Trey White, as well as all-conference linebacker Austin Romaine. 

Quarterback Will Hammond is ahead of schedule in his rehab from an ACL injury and will be ready by the start of Big 12 play in Week 3, and maybe earlier. The non-conference schedule is a cakewalk and the Big 12 slate doesn’t include BYU, Utah, or Kansas State. Tough matchups against Houston and TCU are at home. 

Texas Tech walked through the fire this offseason. Some of it was their own doing. But when things get hard, buy-in is revealed. Coaches love to see how their program responds to adversity in the offseason because it helps predict how the group will handle it when it inevitably rears its head in the fall. 

No team in the country faced more scrutiny over the last few months than Texas Tech. But while the online discourse and the majority of the college football world labeled them as villains, McGuire never saw that impact his team. And that, combined with the sheer talent in the building, gives him the belief that the 2026 version of the Red Raiders can ride even further than last year’s group. 

“I learned that we have a healthy culture, which I already knew, but, man, whenever your foundation gets rocked, how the guys respond coming in every day shows who you are, and our guys have come in every day and gone to work.”