Thomas Castellanos is already making the kind of first impression Texas Tech’s staff notices. On Monday, offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich said the fifth-year quarterback was still in the building at 9:30 the night before, grinding through extra film and trying to absorb the offense as quickly as possible.
“He was up 'til 9:30, past a lot of the coaches, last night,” Leftwich said on Monday, Aug. 31, “trying to watch extra film and learn as much as he can as fast as he can.”
That urgency matters because Texas Tech opens the season at home against Abilene Christian at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, and Castellanos is walking into the program at the most unforgiving time of year to learn a new playbook.
Still, the Red Raiders made the late addition because they believe the experience is worth it. A court ruling gave Castellanos the chance to play a fifth college season, and Texas Tech decided a quarterback with 32 starts was too good to pass up.
Castellanos has bounced across the country during his career, spending 2022 at Central Florida, the 2023 and 2024 seasons at Boston College and 2025 at Florida State. Across those stops, he has thrown for 6,449 yards and 48 touchdowns, matching former Tech standout Robert Hall in passing scores. He has also rushed for 1,984 yards and 24 touchdowns, including 1,113 yards and 13 scores in his first season at Boston College and 557 yards and nine touchdowns last year at Florida State.
Texas Tech announced his addition on Saturday, and the wording was careful: Castellanos was brought in to compete for backup quarterback duty behind Will Hammond. By Monday, the staff had a clearer idea of how they want to use him.
Joey McGuire said he believes Castellanos, listed at 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds, can have a full grasp of the offense by next week, when the Red Raiders face Oregon State.
“I mean, the guy's played a lot of football,” McGuire said, “and I do think that no matter when it is - not necessarily this week, but whenever we get him fully integrated - I think he's going to end up in every game.”
The staff is also clear about one thing: Castellanos is coming in as a quarterback, not a receiver. NFL teams this offseason saw him as a possible pass catcher, but Texas Tech isn’t taking that route.
“It would be hard for him to come in, with how deep that receiver room is,” Leftwich said, “and compete for a spot there. I know talking to Tommy, he wants to be a quarterback and so that's really where we're putting all our focus right now is trying to get him up to speed to run the offense and be a backup quarterback and have situational packages in that role.”
Even with that limited lane, Leftwich and McGuire think there’s room to feature him in specific spots because of what he can do with the ball in his hands. McGuire pointed to Castellanos’ rushing production as a rare trait for a quarterback not running a true triple-option system.
“You don't see a lot of quarterbacks that are not in a true triple-option offense that rush for 1,100 yards,” McGuire said, “and so the guy's really dynamic with the ball in his hands. We'll have packages for him at different times to get him in the game and get him going.”
Helping him catch up is a small group of Tech staffers, including Leftwich, assistant quarterbacks coach Lindsey Scott Jr. and running backs Garret McGuire. Leftwich compared the process to a crash course, but he also acknowledged the obvious limitation: there’s only so much offense a player can absorb in a short stretch.
“It’s incredibly difficult to try to learn a whole offense in a limited amount of time,” Leftwich said, “and I think we've got to be smart as coaches.”
McGuire said he also did his homework on the person before bringing Castellanos into the mix. He didn’t want a late addition to disrupt the room, so he reached out to people who had coached him before, including Gus Malzahn and Chris Thomsen.
“But Gus Malzahn reached out to me. Chris Thomsen reached out to me just immediately, like, 'You are really going to appreciate this guy.
He's a really, really good person,' ” McGuire said. “I think he's been a captain everywhere he's been, and so that just kind of tells you what kind of person he is.”
Malzahn coached Castellanos at UCF in 2022 and later had him again last season as Florida State’s offensive coordinator. Thomsen, a former Texas Tech assistant, has been at Florida State since 2020 as deputy head coach and tight ends coach. Both men know McGuire and the Texas Tech culture, and both vouched for Castellanos.
For now, the Red Raiders are betting on that trust, along with Castellanos’ versatility and experience. Leftwich said the staff will keep building around him with a weekly package of plays.
“My assistant quarterback coach, Lindsey Scott, has done a great job spending a bunch of extra time with him trying to get him up to speed as quick as we can,” Leftwich said. “So that'll be a work in progress over these first couple of weeks, but I can say he's definitely up for the challenge and willing to work at it.”
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