Texas Tech Lands Another DCTF Cover Moment

Texas Tech football isn’t just having a moment anymore. It’s becoming the story.

The Red Raiders are back on the cover of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football for the 2026 edition, and this one hits different.

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Head coach Joey McGuire is front and center again, but this cover isn’t only about a coach, a star player or a hot preseason ranking. It’s about the machine Texas Tech has built in Lubbock.

McGuire is joined by general manager James Blanchard, senior linebacker Ben Roberts, athletic director Kirby Hocutt and Board of Regents chairman Cody Campbell.

That group tells you exactly what Dave Campbell’s Texas Football is spotlighting: Texas Tech’s climb from an interesting Big 12 program to a legitimate national player.

The Red Raiders earned that attention after turning McGuire’s vision into real results.

Texas Tech surged to a Big 12 Conference championship and pushed itself into the national conversation, proving the program isn’t just talking big in the modern era of college football.

It’s spending, recruiting, organizing and winning like a school that wants to stay there.

That’s what makes this cover so fascinating. DCTF has long been known as the “Football Bible of Texas,” and landing the cover still carries weight in a state where football culture is practically a second language.

For Texas Tech to get that shine twice already under McGuire says plenty about how quickly the perception has changed.

The last time Texas Tech had the cover to itself was in 2016, when Patrick Mahomes II and Kliff Kingsbury represented the Red Raiders during one of the most electric offensive eras in school history.

Before that, the magazine featured unforgettable Tech figures like Spike Dykes, Mike Leach, Michael Crabtree and Graham Harrell.

But this 2026 cover breaks new ground. Hocutt and Campbell are reportedly the first administrators and non-coaches or players to appear on the magazine’s cover in its 67-edition history. 

Texas Tech is being framed as something bigger than a roster.

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This is a program shaped by leadership, NIL ambition, front-office thinking and an aggressive understanding of where college football is headed.

The cover isn’t just a celebration of where Texas Tech has been. It’s a warning shot about where the Red Raiders believe they’re going next.

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