Texas Tech doesn’t need Micah Hudson to rescue anything anymore. That might be the best thing that could have happened to both sides.
When Hudson signed with the Red Raiders as a five-star out of Temple, Texas, it was a first for Joey McGuire’s program: the first five-star high school player ever to choose Lubbock. The hype was instant, and McGuire admits now that he helped feed it.
"You know, year one, I put way too much expectations on him," McGuire said this week. "I think he put way too much expectations on himself.
That pressure never really had a chance to settle into something manageable. A lingering injury from Hudson’s senior season kept him out of spring practice as a freshman, and he barely saw the field in 2024. Then came the detour to Texas A&M, the return to Tech in the summer of 2025, and another offseason away from football activities.
The result was a start-stop beginning that never let him build momentum as a receiver. In two college seasons, Hudson has 16 catches for 235 yards and two touchdowns across 22 games, with most of those appearances coming on special teams. He did pop up a few times as a kick returner, but the breakout Texas Tech imagined in 2023 never came close to arriving.
That old version of the story was simple: Hudson was supposed to be the spark for a program stuck in the Big 12 middle. Back then, Texas Tech needed him to be the face of the climb. Now, the Red Raiders are in a different place entirely.
They’re coming off their first Big 12 championship, and Hudson is no longer the lone five-star name attached to the roster. Freshmen offensive tackle Felix Ojo and edge rusher LaDamion Guyton have taken some of that spotlight, and quarterback chatter from this offseason has shifted attention to Will Hammond. On Saturday night, he’s the one most fans will be watching.
McGuire’s message to Hudson has changed with the moment, too.
"The very last football school," McGuire said, "I walked off the field with him, and I had my arm around him, and I said, 'Look, man, I need you to take a deep breath and just get ready to go play football.'"
That’s the job now: play receiver, be part of the group, and stop carrying the burden of being Texas Tech’s chosen one. Hudson is expected to start at outside receiver and be an important piece of the offense, but nobody is asking him to be Michael Crabtree or to carry the whole operation on his back.
McGuire’s biggest strength has usually been his ability to energize a room. But with Hudson, that enthusiasm got ahead of the reality. The coach was calling him transcendent before he had even caught a pass, and once the setbacks hit, the noise only got louder.
This time, the setup is different. Texas Tech’s strength in 2026 is the collective, with a roster depth McGuire believes stacks up better than anyone else in the Big 12 at almost every position group. Hudson doesn’t need to be the story anymore.
He just needs to be a teammate, line up at receiver, and do what brought him to Lubbock in the first place: catch the ball.
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The red zone is the obvious place for Castellanos to matter, because his game offers both a runners threat and a passers touch. Texas Tech has been searching for more options in tight spaces, and Castellanos history of producing both rushing and passing touchdowns gives McGuire a useful piece to deploy while leaving one bigger question hanging over how expansive that role could become. [Read more 🡒]
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For Texas Tech, that puts the Red Raiders into a wide-open recruiting fight that figures to stretch well beyond this fall. Mays has said Ohio State and Texas are schools he is certain to visit, and he plans to take his time before making a decision next summer, which gives programs plenty of chances to build momentum with one of the states most coveted young receivers. [Read more 🡒]