Texas Tech may not have brought in Tommy Castellanos to challenge for the starting job, but Joey McGuire sounds ready to make sure the former Florida State transfer matters anyway.
That’s the striking part of this move. Castellanos arrived on the roster last week as a backup quarterback, yet he’s already been one of the most talked-about players around the South Plains. McGuire made it clear Monday that the plan is bigger than an emergency option on the sideline.
“I do think...that whenever we get him fully integrated, I think he's going to end up in every game,” McGuire said Monday. “He's extremely dynamic with the ball in his hand...you don't see a lot of quarterbacks that are not in a true triple-option offense that rush for 1,100 yards [in a season]. So the guy is really dynamic with the ball in his hands, so we'll have packages for him at different times to get him in the game and get him going.”
That kind of usage is tricky with a quarterback, because rotating at almost any other position is normal, but mixing quarterbacks in and out can wreck an offense if it turns into a habit. Texas Tech will have to be careful with how it handles Castellanos. The good news is that his skill set points toward a very specific role that could help solve a problem the Red Raiders had last season.
That issue showed up inside the 20. Texas Tech scored touchdowns on only 55.4% of its red-zone chances in 2025, which ranked 98th nationally. For an offense that was otherwise solid, that was the glaring weakness.
A lot of that was tied to the quarterback run game. Behren Morton played the entire 2025 season with a hairline fracture in his leg, which made Tech cautious about leaning on designed runs. The same concern could apply this year with Hammond, who is less than a year removed from tearing a ligament in his knee.
Castellanos gives McGuire a different option. He has 24 career rushing touchdowns, including nine last season for the Seminoles, and his game is built for cluttered spaces. He’s not just a runner with burst; he’s a quarterback who can make people miss when the field shrinks.
That matters because the red zone is all about tight windows and quick decisions. It’s also where a lot of backup quarterbacks become easy to defend if they can’t threaten defenses as passers.
Castellanos is different there, too. He has thrown for 48 career touchdowns, which makes him a legitimate dual-threat answer rather than a one-dimensional package player.
If McGuire follows through on what he said, Castellanos should show up every week in some form. And for Texas Tech, the most natural place to unleash him might be the spot where the offense needed help most. That would let the Red Raiders use a backup quarterback not because something went wrong, but because they chose to.
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