Though the Texas Tech football program has already loaded up on talent from the transfer portal this offseason, it appears the Red Raiders aren’t finished trying to add talent to next season’s team. According to Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports and 247Sports, head coach Joey McGuire and his staff are hosting Stanford outside linebacker David Bailey.

Bailey entered the transfer portal on Friday. That came just days after the Cardinal fired head coach Troy Taylor.

A Freshman All-American in 2022 and a 16-game starter over the course of his career, Bailey has recorded 111 tackles, 22.5 tackles for loss, and 14.5 sacks off the edge in his college career.

Last season, the 6-foot-3, 250-pound California native led Stanford with 8.0 tackles for loss, 8 quarterback hurries, 7.0 sacks, and 5 forced fumbles. In all, he racked up 31 tackles (22 total).

ESPN also reports that his 81 pressures over his three seasons would rank first among all ACC pass rushers set to return in 2025. Hopefully, he doesn’t return to the ACC, though.

Beefing up the pass rush has been a priority this offseason for the Red Raiders. In 2024, Tech was dreadful at getting after the passer.

Averaging only 1.62 sacks per game, the Red Raider defense ranked just 99th nationally and 13th in the Big 12 in that category last fall. What’s more, no player on the team had more than 5.0 sacks last year, and those came from middle linebacker Jacob Rodriguez.

To remedy that problem, Tech has brought in four transfer defensive linemen since the end of last season. The best pass rusher among them is Romello Height, a senior transfer from Georgia Tech, who has only 6.5 career sacks but who was one of the top-rated pass rushers in the ACC last season.

Therefore, it makes sense that Tech would be interested in Bailey. He could pair with Height to give Tech a formidable pair of edge rushers to join returnees such as Isaac Smith, Josep Adedire, Charles Esters, and Amier Washington, each of whom has been with the program for multiple years without becoming a standout pass rusher despite flashing moments of brilliant potential.

There’s no question that Tech must find a way to get more pressure on opposing quarterbacks in 2025 if the defense is going to finally take a step forward and stop being a liability. Hopefully, Bailey will decide that he wants to be part of that transformation as he takes in what the program and Lubbock have to offer.