Most athletes will default to team speak, saying their individual success doesn't matter so long as their squad has great triumphs throughout a season.
Brice Pollock isn't hiding behind the cliches. He wants the Texas Tech football teamto be as successful as it was in 2025, but the Red Raider cornerback also has a long list of individual goals that he's set for himself in his senior year.
Pollock wants to at least be a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, given annually to the nation's best defensive back. He wants to be an All-American, a first-team all-Big 12 selection.
"But most importantly," Pollock told the Avalanche-Journal during Big 12 Media Days in Frisco, "be a first round, second round draft pick."
Pollock achieved many of these things
in his first year as a Red Raider. The Mississippi State transfer led the team and was tied for seventh in the nation with five interceptions. It was a solid debut for someone who had one career pick entering the season. But Pollock wants to make even more of an impact in the takeaways department.
"I think just create forced fumbles," Pollock said. "I didn't have any forced fumbles. I'll say clean up some penalty issues and I think just be more consistent."
Pollock isn't the only one who has high expectations for himself. If video game ratings are to be believed, Pollock is among the top returning players in the entire country, coming in as the 18th-highest ranked player (and No. 1 cornerback) on the recently released EA Sports College Football 27.
These are among the reasons Pollock opted to return to Texas Tech rather than head for the NFL Draft, an option presented to Pollock early in the offseason. The feedback he received wasn't to his liking, so Pollock decided to run it back.
"The highest round I heard was third," Pollock said, "but also heard sixth, so it was a high range. I was getting a lot of third through fourth, some fifth, some sixth. It wasn't consistent for me and I just want to go back another year."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: EXCLUSIVE: Texas Tech football's Brice Pollock sets high expectations for 2026
