The Texas Tech football team wasn't bad to begin with, given the Red Raiders had a lot of players returning from an 8-5 team in 2024. That didn't stop Joey McGuire's staff from mining the transfer portal early and often during the off-season.

When the Red Raiders' depth chart came out this week, it showed new starters at six positions on offense, as many as nine on defense and four at the main special-teams positions. Too many new faces to sum up in one story. We've previously covered the new starters on offense and special teams.

Here's a closer look at first-team players on defense who were not on the team or at least not regulars last year.

Defense

DE/OLB David Bailey, Sr.

Taking over for: Charles Esters III

Esters remains in the two-deep after he started the last nine

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