In Joey McGuire’s estimation, Nebraska coach Tom Osborne in his heyday had college football’s best walk-on program and Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes had one of the best.
McGuire has something neither of the previous generation of coaching luminaries had: structured, legal financial support for players who enter a program without a scholarship. Next season, more Red Raiders players will be in position to benefit.
The Matador Club that supports Texas Tech athletes plans to cover 120 Tech football players, Cody Campbell, one of the collective’s founders, said this past week. The club in July 2022 signed 100 Tech football players to annual agreements of $25,000 apiece, then bumped the number to 105 shortly thereafter.
By going to 120 players, the agreements will cover virtually the entire team, including 35 walk-ons above the annual NCAA scholarship limit of 85 players. The $25,000 annual amount will stay the same this coming school year, Campbell said.
The plus for McGuire: being able, theoretically, to add more and better developmental players to his roster, some of whom could be playing elsewhere on scholarship.
“Oh, it’s huge,” the Red Raiders’ coach said this past week. “We’re so lucky that the [Matador Club board members] Cody Campbells of the world, the Tim Culps of the world, that they understand this — being able to recruit high-quality walk-ons, and one reason you can is because they are going to be able to be a part of the Matador Club.
“That is huge. You’re almost, really, on scholarship whenever you’re talking about the price of coming to school here at Texas Tech and being able to get guys like that.”
McGuire cited as examples defensive edge players Terrell Tilmon and Sam Carrell, both walk-on transfers. Neither is in the Red Raiders’ three-deep going into the summer, but both were scholarship players at Pac-12 schools, Tilmon at Oregon and Carrell at Washington State.
“Getting guys like that makes a huge difference,” McGuire said.
Carrell is a 6-foot-4, 270-pound sophomore from Albuquerque (N.M.) Sandia, Tilmon a 6-5, 230-pound sophomore from Mansfield Timberview. Both still need to develop and fill out physically, but Tilmon, for example, had 20 scholarship offers coming out of high school and was rated among the top 70 recruits in Texas.
Tech initially tried Carrell as a defensive tackle, but switched him to defensive end.
“He’s really athletic and our depth was good there,” McGuire said, “and he was one of those guys that you’re talking about adding weight, adding weight, adding weight. I was like, ‘How about we see, because he’s so athletic, if he can play on the edge and give us depth?’
“Terrell (Tilmon), he’ll start on special teams for us this year, so we’ve got a really good player and he’s going to continue to grow.”
In December, Tech landed Rockwall wide receiver Aiden Meeks who, in his last two high-school seasons, caught 83 passes for 1,503 yards and 18 touchdowns. Recruiting services showed the son of former Tech safety Vincent Meeks with scholarship offers from Arizona State, Abilene Christian, Nevada-Las Vegas and several FCS programs.
“It was easier to recruit him,” McGuire said, “knowing that he had the opportunity to be a part of the Matador Club.”
The collective pays the players monthly, Campbell said. In September, the club announced it would sign 27 Texas Tech softball players at $10,000 apiece for the school year. This past week, it revealed plans to cover 39 baseball players this coming year at $10,000 apiece annually.
In return, the club asks Tech athletes to use their name, image and likeness, as well as online presence and in-person endeavors, to support Lubbock-based non-profit organizations.
Such payments were legalized beginning in July 2021 by a combination of state laws and the NCAA’s decision to stand down rather than vigorously contest the legislation.