Thomas Castellanos knows how to make a good impression on his new Texas Tech football coaches — one way being, don't leave the building until after they have.
"He was up 'til 9:30, past a lot of the coaches, last night," offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich said on Monday, Aug. 31, "trying to watch extra film and learn as much as he can as fast as he can."
Tech opens the season
hosting Abilene Christian at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5.The week before the season opener's not the best time to start learning a new offense, but you do what you can when you want to play a fifth year of college football.
A late court ruling gave Castellanos that opportunity. After spring practice, after summer workouts, after fall camp isn't the best time to start teaching a new offense, but when you're all in on playing into January, you don't turn down a guy with 32 college starts.
Castellanos played the 2022 season at Central Florida, the 2023 and 2024 seasons at Boston College and the 2025 season at Florida State. In his career, he's passed for 6,449 yards and 48 touchdowns, the same number as former Tech great Robert Hall. He's rushed for 1,984 yards and 24 TDs, including 1,113 yards and 13 TDs in his first year at BC and 557 yards and 9 TDs last year at FSU.
Texas Tech announced Castellanos' addition on Saturday. Seemingly to head off any controversy, Tech's announcement said Castellanos is coming in to compete for backup QB duty behind Will Hammond. More details came into focus on Monday, among them:
∎ Tech coach Joey McGuire thinks Castellanos, a 5-foot-10, 190-pound fifth-year man, can have a full understanding of the offense by next week, when the Red Raiders play 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."
∎ Though NFL teams this off-season viewed Castellanos as a receiver, he's here to play quarterback only.
"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."
∎ Using his new toy at quarterback only still gives Leftwich room to be creative.
"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."
∎ Remember how a young student assistant named Zach Kittley was credited with teaching Kliff Kingsbury's offense to the freshman-year Patrick Mahomes? Leftwich, assistant quarterbacks coach Lindsey Scott Jr. and running backs Garret McGuire are all helping Castellanos take a crash course in the current version.
You can do only so much, though.
"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."
∎ Some of Castellanos' former coaches at Florida State went to bat for him. Joey McGuire said if he was going to make a late addition, he didn't want it to be someone who'd foul up the locker room chemistry.
"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, as the UCF head coach, had Castellanos in 2022, and as Florida State offensive coordinator, had him again last season. Thomsen, a former Texas Tech assistant, has been the Florida State deputy head coach and tight ends coach since 2020. They know McGuire and-or the Tech culture.
As it pertains to Castellanos, they've told the Tech coach they can trust him.
Now it's the Red Raiders' turn to deploy him. Leftwich, like McGuire, used the adjective "dynamic" in describing Castellanos and said each week he'll draw up "a little package of plays that we feel like he can give us an advantage with him at quarterback."
"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."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Mack Leftwich, Texas Tech football staff's plan for Tommy Castellanos
