For Texas Tech, getting noticed used to feel like the whole battle.
Now the Red Raiders are doing more than getting a mention. They’re showing up in the sport’s biggest conversation pieces, and ESPN’s annual college football hype video made that plain on Saturday. In a 40-second promo set to “High Noon” by Shaboozey, Texas Tech popped up twice - a sign that the program has moved from afterthought to something the national audience is expected to know.
The first clip features star linebacker Ben Roberts and his one-handed interception in last season’s Big 12 Championship Game. The second shows head coach Joey McGuire getting doused with Gatorade after that same game.
Among Big 12 teams, only three were included in the video: Colorado, BYU and Texas Tech. The Red Raiders’ presence in that group says plenty about where the program sits entering the season.
This is a long way from how Texas Tech usually lived in the national spotlight. For most of the program’s history, the Red Raiders only broke through when they knocked off a major name such as Texas, Oklahoma or Nebraska.
Even a moment like the 31-point second-half comeback in the 2006 Insight Bowl against Minnesota didn’t create lasting national traction. By the next season, the attention had usually drifted away.
That was true even during the best Mike Leach teams. Those squads had trouble turning a big year into a sustained national profile, and the program stayed stuck with the label of an entertaining underdog. The noise around Tech often had more to do with Leach’s personality than with the team itself.
What’s happening now feels different. A lot of the conversation around Texas Tech this offseason has centered on controversy, and the program has leaned into the idea of being the villain.
That may end up helping more than hurting. Instead of trying to stay the lovable outsider from West Texas, McGuire’s team has pushed itself into the center of the sport’s discussion.
And that discussion has to include Texas Tech now. The Red Raiders are being talked about as an annual playoff contender and as the dominant force in the Big 12, which means the rest of the country can’t ignore them anymore. When a program with little pedigree starts challenging the sport’s established order, it is going to irritate people.
That edge was part of the message in the trailer for Paramount+’s upcoming four-part documentary series, “The Program: Texas Tech.” McGuire is shown telling his players they are the most hated team in America, then adding that he loves it.
For Texas Tech fans, that’s the point. After years of begging for recognition, the program is finally getting it - even from a national media giant that hasn’t always been eager to give the Red Raiders their due.
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