Texas Tech enters 2026 with the kind of profile that makes the rest of the Big 12 uneasy: a loaded roster, a soft schedule and a real shot to run it back.
The Red Raiders are the defending league champs, and they get a major break in the regular season by avoiding BYU and Utah entirely. That’s a big reason most outlets are picking them to repeat, even with the quarterback situation still hanging over everything.
That part of the story is impossible to ignore. Texas Tech is trying to become the first team to repeat as Big 12 champion since Oklahoma in 2020, but it will do so with uncertainty and inexperience under center after the Brendan Sorsby situation took over the conversation for months. Sorsby is out for the year after getting caught gambling on college football games, including games involving Indiana when he was with the Hoosiers.
For now, the expectation in Lubbock is that Will Hammond is the name to watch. Joey McGuire said at Big 12 football media days in early July that Hammond is ahead of schedule in his comeback from a torn ACL, and he even said the quarterback could be in line to start the opener.
Hammond already showed what he can do last season, stepping in for injured starter Behren Morton and beating Utah 34-10 at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The flip side is that his play was uneven in other appearances before the injury.
“I feel really good about that room,” McGuire said on July 9. “We just need to stay on track.
Where we are at right now, I could see Will Hammond starting the first game. We will leave that up to the doctors and the medical staff, but he’s in a really good spot.”
Texas Tech also added Tulsa transfer Kirk Francis, who started 10 games last season and threw for 3,405 yards and 18 touchdowns in 18 total appearances, and redshirt freshman Lloyd Jones remains in the mix as well.
Even with the quarterback uncertainty, the rest of the roster is the kind of thing that makes Tech look like the most talented team in the conference again. Running backs Cameron Dickey and J’Koby Williams are back after combining for nearly 2,000 rushing yards and 25 total touchdowns in 2025. McGuire pointed to 12 returning starters and said the team’s recent turbulence has pulled the group closer together.
“We have 12 returning starters,” McGuire said. “I feel good that (captains) are helping bring the team together.
I do think that what we’ve gone through the last couple of months have brought us even closer. … We feel like we’re in a really good spot culturally and team-wise.”
There are reasons for confidence up front and on the outside, too. Texas Tech’s offensive line and Morton were exposed in December when Oregon shut out the Red Raiders 23-0 in the Orange Bowl quarterfinal. Three starters are back on the line - Howard Sampson, Jacob Ponton and Sheridan Wilson - and the receiving corps includes senior Coy Eakin and Pitt transfer Kenny Johnson, who brings big-play ability.
McGuire also didn’t shy away from making the broader case for his conference at the Big 12’s media gathering in Frisco, Texas. After Texas Tech’s CFP stumble and the mess around Sorsby, he used the stage to push for more from the league as a whole.
“I think it is really important that this conference gets multiple teams in the playoffs. I think there’s an obligation as programs in this conference that we play at a high level, and then I think it is really important that we win in the playoffs,” McGuire said. “Until we do that as a conference, then we are going to continue to have the same narrative that we have right now.”
Defensively, the Red Raiders had a major departure in 2025 NCAA sack leader David Bailey, who is off to the NFL. But they went shopping in the portal and landed several highly paid replacements, including Trey White and Adam Trick. White piled up 19.5 sacks in two seasons at San Diego State, while Trick had 12.5 tackles for loss last season at Miami of Ohio.
Linebacker Ben Roberts is back after helping Tech clamp down on BYU in the Big 12 championship game, finishing that second half with two interceptions in the 34-7 win. He’ll be joined by Kansas State transfer Austin Romaine, another run-stopping piece for a defense that still looks the part.
McGuire insists the off-field noise won’t spill into the season, and he says the building has stayed locked in through it all.
“The last couple of months we’ve gone through some adversity. I do believe if you walked into our building every single day and you walked into the weight room and the workouts or football school, you wouldn’t know that anything was going on,” McGuire said.
“A big part of that has been Ben (Roberts) and Sheridan (Wilson). ... At no point did I feel over the last few months that anything has taken away from the football as far as in the building.”
Texas Tech opens 2026 with Abilene Christian on Sept. 5, then plays at Oregon State on Sept. 12 before hosting Houston on Sept. 18 and Sam Houston on Sept. 26. The rest of the slate includes trips to Colorado, Cincinnati, Oklahoma State and Baylor, plus home games against Arizona State, Arizona, West Virginia and TCU.
There’s also a pair of Utah ties in the program: junior defensive lineman JoJo Johnson prepped at Olympus High in Salt Lake City before starting his college career at Oregon State, and associate head coach and special teams coordinator Kenny Perry played high school football at Granger High in West Valley City before his family moved to Texas after his sophomore season.
For all the quarterback uncertainty, Texas Tech still looks built to chase another Big 12 crown. The roster is deep, the schedule is favorable and the talent level is obvious. Now comes the part that always decides these things: whether the quarterback room can hold up its end.
In Other News...
BYU Suddenly Has A Chance To Bring Back Two Former Starters
A Colorado judges preliminary injunction has suddenly opened the door for an extra year of eligibility for athletes from the 2022 class, creating another layer of uncertainty around college football rosters heading into the next wave of offseason decisions. The NCAA can appeal, so nothing is settled yet, but the ruling has already put a fresh spotlight on players whose college careers appeared to be nearing their natural end.
For BYU, the development matters because it could affect former starters who now have a possible path back to the field if they want it. It also leaves the Cougars and other Big 12 programs watching closely, since the decision could ripple beyond Provo and into the plans of other veterans weighing whether another season is worth pursuing. [Read more 🡒]
Taysom Hill Leaves Saints But Still Inspires In Unexpected Way
Taysom Hills nine-year run in New Orleans is over, closing a long and unusual chapter for one of BYUs most memorable football products. For Cougars fans, his story still starts in Provo, where his college career included those electric moments against Texas that helped cement his reputation as a do-everything threat long before he became a Swiss Army knife in the NFL.
Hills path to the Saints was hardly straightforward either, beginning with a cut by the Green Bay Packers before New Orleans gave him a chance and turned him into a lasting fixture. Even as his Saints tenure comes to an end, his career remains a reminder of how far a BYU player can go when talent and versatility meet opportunity. [Read more 🡒]