When is spring transfer portal, and what might it hold for Texas Tech football?

Posted by author February 20, 2025 Football

Spread the love

In early December, Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire told reporters he intended to add 10 players, maybe as many as 12, from the NCAA transfer portal.

With the financial backing of The Matador Club donor collective and the available talent, though, McGuire couldn’t help himself. He became the kid who walked into a candy store with a $50 bill. When the portal dust settled, Texas Tech had 17 newcomers, most of whom were starters or rotation players elsewhere.

Tech took former Wake Forest quarterback Mitch Griffis and Miami (Ohio) wide receiver Reggie Virgil at positions McGuire said he didn’t initially plan to add. Compared to McGuire’s originally stated shopping list, the Red Raiders also added two extra defensive backs for five total and one extra defensive lineman/edge player for four total.

The transfer portal opens again in mid-April, the week of the Red Raiders’ spring game.

When is the next transfer portal window?

In October, the NCAA Division I Council changed the notification-of-transfer windows in football and men’s and women’s basketball from a total of 45 days to 30. The football windows this school year were set for Dec. 9-28 and April 16-25.

Players who want to transfer with immediate eligibility elsewhere for the next season must have their names in the portal during one of the specified windows, though they don’t have to decide on a new school within that time frame.

What does the April transfer window hold for Texas Tech football?

Texas Tech currently sits 18 over the anticipated 105-player roster limit for next season, but as college football has become more professionalized, McGuire and the Tech personnel department have shown they’re always on the lookout to upgrade the roster.

In addition to landing 18 players on the December national signing day and 17 from the portal, they added Frenship quarterback Holden Phillips — not exactly your average walk-on with a state-leading 57 touchdown passes last season — and former area basketball player Jalen Brattain, who’ll see if his 6-foot-6, 265-pound frame works as well at tight end as at power forward. Brattain starred in high school at Seminole and Shallowater, then played for Lubbock Christian University and Chaminade.

As for how all the pieces fit, McGuire has acknowledged the likelihood of having to cut players. If federal judge Claudia Wilken gives final approval to the House v. NCAA settlement proposal, the roster caps and revenue-sharing terms will go into effect July 1.

About 20 Red Raiders players are walk-ons who played little or not at all last season. A few other walk-ons or scholarship players who have already redshirted had roles only on special teams.

McGuire said some upperclassmen are close to completing degree requirements and want to graduate from Tech, a reason to stay through spring practice. Also, some scholarship players dissatisfied with their place on the depth chart might transfer by their own choosing.

All of which means Tech might still look to add in April. But given the Red Raiders addressed all their stated needs and then some in December, who might they bring in? It might be a best player or two available, someone too impactful to not pursue.

Quarterback Behren Morton is rehabbing his throwing shoulder, and though he’s pointed out the shoulder wasn’t an issue for him last year and his December surgery was elective, the Red Raiders will monitor his progress.

McGuire said in December any QB Tech took in the portal would have to be comfortable “being a backup to a backup,” implying Morton and Will Hammond are a for-sure 1-2. Griffis seems to fit that description, having passed for 1,957 yards and 15 touchdowns from 2020-23 at Wake Forest.