With the Texas Tech football team losing longtime starters Jaylon Hutchings and Tony Bradford at defensive tackle, Red Raiders coach Joey McGuire continued his search for candidates to strengthen the position this winter. .
The Red Raiders had an option on their hands Friday night. Defensive tackle Debraylon Carroll, who started all 13 games for Rice last season, has committed to Tech University as a graduate transfer. Carroll, who was listed by Rice as 6 feet tall and weighing 290 pounds, announced her pledge on social media.
Next season will be Carroll's sixth year playing college football. In his last five years at Rice, he played in 42 games, started 21 and recorded 101 tackles, including 19 tackles and seven sacks. The 2023 season was his best season, recording a career-high 46 tackles, nine tackles for loss at the line, and three 1/2 sacks.
The Owls went 6-7 last season, ending with a 45-21 loss to Texas State in the First Responder Bowl.
Rice appeared in just five games in the 2020 season, which was interrupted due to the coronavirus, and Carroll missed the 2021 season due to injury.
Carroll played on Duncanville's Class 6A Division I state finals team in high school. He was unanimously named District 8-6A Defensive Player of the Year and was named to the Associated Press Sports Editors' Team All-State Second Team.
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Hutchings, who started 57 games for the Red Raiders, and Bradford, who started 38 games, were ineligible.
Earlier this offseason, Tech acquired James Hansen, a 6-foot-2, 307-pound defensive tackle who spent the past two years at Nevada.
Tech's top returning defensive tackles are senior Quincy Ledet and junior Duda Banks, who were the top backups for Hutchings and Bradford. The next most experienced player is Trevon McAlpine, who played in eight games as a redshirt freshman this season.
