Texas Tech football season is one month away but, for the moment, those who follow the Red Raiders have the next best thing: the start of practice. Tech hosts its local media day on Tuesday, Aug. 4, and the Red Raiders take the field for the preseason's first workout on Wednesday, Aug. 5.
The 2025 season was one to remember. Tech's 12 wins, its Big 12 championship, its College Football Playoff appearance and its trip to the Orange Bowl were program firsts. From that team, the Red Raiders return seven offensive players and six defensive players who started at least six games. They added 21 players via the NCAA transfer portal, reduced by one when Tech parted ways with embattled quarterback Brendan Sorsby.
Even with that development, the Red Raiders
are the preseason Big 12 favorite, a role they're embracing.
The Red Raiders practice on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week, take Saturday off, and work out again on Sunday.
Here are five plotlines to follow in August.
The health of Will Hammond
Hammond's return to playing in games, initially pegged for the Big 12 opener in week 3, has trended instead toward his being available for the Sept. 5 season opener against Abilene Christian. That's based on recent public comments from Tech coach Joey McGuire and Hammond himself about his recovery from his season-ending knee injury last October.
Hammond told Big 12 radio interviewers his surgeon cleared him in early July. However, head athletic trainer Michael Ramirez and the Tech medical staff will have final say on when he's turned loose. Expect him to be treated carefully and monitored closely throughout camp.
With Sorsby's departure, Hammond's presence matters a lot if the Red Raiders want to repeat as Big 12 champions.
When and how Quinten Joyner fits in
Joyner's comeback is both similar and different to Hammond's. Both are coming off ACL tears, and although the Red Raiders won't rush Hammond back into the fray before he's ready, they really need him.
Joyner, the 5-foot-11, 220-pound running back, was atop the depth chart until mid-August last year when he suffered his season-ending knee injury. Now the picture's changed with Cameron Dickey and J'Koby Williams coming off breakout seasons in which Dickey was a Doak Walker Award semifinalist and Williams a Paul Hornung Award finalists.
Joyner not only has to knock off the rust, but faces a stacked position group with proven performers.
Offensive guard play
Tech has the framework to be strong up front with returning starters Howard Sampson and Jacob Ponton at tackle and Sheridan Wilson at center. The two holes are at guard, where Will Jados and Davion Carter completed their eligibility.
Jordan Church and Hunter Zambrano stepped into spots from day one in spring practice, and McGuire has said he like what he sees with the line. Still, the new starters have to prove themselves. Church started only three games last year at Louisville, and Zambrano's played in only five games the past two years because of an array of injuries and surgeries.
Defensive disruption
Texas Tech ranked first in the FBS last year in turnovers gained with 32 and tied for sixth in sacks with 41. That's among 134 teams. The Red Raiders probably aren't going to repeat those numbers, certainly not with turnover machine Jacob Rodriguez having departed and probably not without pocket crushers David Bailey and Romello Height, also gone.
Good news is, Tech returns vital cogs at every level of the defense and added impact front-seven players Adam Trick, Trey White andAustin Romaine. The nation's third-best scoring defense, one that yielded less than 12 points a game, shouldn't have a precipitous drop-off, but it might have to work harder and longer to put away opponents with those Rodriguez punch-outs not on the menu this year.
The competition at safety
Peyton Morgan finished spring practice as the first-team field safety, emerging from a competition among three sophomores for one starting job. Still, the Red Raiders were looking at turning over a position to a young, first-time starter. So nine days after the Texas Tech-Sorsby split, the Tech staff filled the open roster spot by adding Jordan Rogers, a Division II all-America safey from Pittsburg State.
Rogers is a sixth-year senior from Waco La Vega. On a 10-3 playoff team last year, he had 85 tackles, 6 tackles for loss, 10 pass breakups, 5 interceptions and 4 caused fumbles.
That one safety spot still could shake out more than one way over the next month. Rogers could step in and win it, Morgan could hold on to it or one of the other sophomores could come on, especially since Oliver Miles III missed most of spring with an ankle injury and Malik Esquerra has a projectable size/speed combo.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: 5 things to watch as Texas Tech football practice begins
