Five-star OT Felix Ojo commits to Texas Tech, lands $5.1M deal
Five-star offensive tackle Felix Ojo, No. 20 in the 2026 ESPN 300, committed to Texas Tech on Friday upon signing a historic, seven-figure revenue share contract with the Red Raiders, his agent, Derrick Shelby of Prestige Management, told ESPN.
Ojo, a 6-foot-7, 285-pound prospect from Mansfield, Texas, is ESPN’s No. 4 offensive tackle and second-ranked recruit from the state of Texas in the 2026 class. He chose Texas Tech over Florida, Michigan, Ohio State and Texas following a slate of official visits this spring. Ojo will arrive as the program’s highest-ranked addition since ESPN began ranking high school prospects in the 2006 recruiting cycle.
According to Shelby, Ojo is set to join Texas Tech on a fully guaranteed three-year, $5.1 million contract.
The deal is believed to be one of the largest fully guaranteed revenue-share agreements in college football history under the recently approved federal settlement that allows college programs to pay their athletes directly. Ojo’s deal rivals the lucrative multiyear package that top-ranked 2026 offensive tackle Jackson Cantwell secured with Miami earlier this year, which sources told ESPN will earn the nation’s No. 3 overall prospect more than $2 million annually with incentives.
“Football is a brutal sport, and athletes are not able to play professionally until their graduating class has been in college three years,” Shelby told ESPN. “It was important to be able to secure Felix Ojo’s future and give him and his family some security as he continues to develop into a first-round NFL draft pick.”
Ojo’s agreement with Texas Tech marks the school’s latest move in a string of significant expenditures over the past year.
ESPN’s Max Olson reported in February that the Red Raiders spent more than $10 million on 17 new players in the winter transfer portal window. All told, Texas Tech made 21 portal additions while assembling the nation’s second-ranked transfer class this offseason.
The Red Raiders also made waves last summer when the Matador Club, the school’s NIL collection, helped the softball program land transfer phenom NiJaree Canady from Stanford on a one-year, $1,050,024 deal. Canady, who is also represented by Shelby, signed another seven-figure contract with the Matador Club last month after leading the Red Raiders to their first Women’s College World Series appearance and a national runner-up finish in her debut season with the program.
A multiyear starter at Texas’ Lake Ridge High School, Ojo will join Texas Tech and coach Joey McGuire in 2026 as the program’s first five-star signee since wide receiver Micah Hudson in 2024.
Ojo’s list of official visits this spring included stops at Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Utah and Texas along with the Red Raiders prior to his pledge. Sources told ESPN that Texas and Utah were among the programs that offered Ojo the most substantial revenue-share contracts in the final stages of his recruitment.
Ojo represents Texas Tech’s first ESPN 300 addition among 18 prospects committed to the program in the 2026 cycle, a group that includes 13 in-state pledges. He lands as a cornerstone commit in a Red Raiders offensive line class that also features a pair of spring pledges in three-star offensive guard Jerald Mays and offensive tackle Jacob Crow.
Week 1 had headliners for the casuals. Week 2 had rivalry games and loads of thrillers for the hardcores. In Week 3, we attempt to split the difference. This week gives us high-stakes helmet games (Texas A&M-Notre Dame, Georgia-Tennessee, Florida-LSU) and rivalry games both bitter (Pitt-West Virginia) and, sometimes, silly (Ole Miss-Arkansas). But most of all, it gives us PANIC.
Notre Dame is 0-1 and won’t have a ton of quality win opportunities to overcome a potential 0-2 start. Clemson and Georgia haven’t looked the part yet and could be severely punished if they don’t shift into gear. Supposed Big 12 favorites Arizona State and Kansas State are a combined 2-3 and can’t wait much longer to turn into the teams they were supposed to be. And both Florida and Virginia Tech played their coaches onto incredibly hot seats with jarring second-half collapses last week. So many fan bases are either fuming or about to be.
The first two weeks were fun in different ways. Now it’s time to get anxious. Here’s everything you need to follow in Week 3.
All times are Eastern, and all games are Saturday unless otherwise noted.
Hot seat panic
Between Nov. 16 and last Saturday, Florida went 5-0, beating LSU, Ole Miss and Florida State in successive weeks, allowing just 10.4 points per game and, presumably, playing head coach Billy Napier off of the hot seat.
Then the Gators lost to USF. They settled for field goals early and gave up just enough big plays (and horrid penalties) late to lose 18-16. It happened the way a lot of upsets happen, and USF might turn out to be an awesome team. But Florida now faces an absurd run featuring trips to No. 3 LSU, No. 5 Miami and No. 16 Texas A&M, plus a visit from No. 7 Texas, in the next month. Napier went from reasonably safe to all but done in a heartbeat.
He’s not alone, at least. Starting the season against South Carolina and Vanderbilt, Brent Pry’s Virginia Tech got outscored by a combined 48-3 in two horrendous second halves. The Hokies have plummeted to 74th in SP+. Unlike Florida, they have a rebound opportunity with home games against Old Dominion and Wofford, but ODU has been awfully interesting to start the season
