The good atmosphere around Raiderland didn’t last long. A little more than 24 hours after the Texas Tech football team defeated West Virginia 52-15 on Saturday to finish the 2024 regular season 8-4, the realities of the transfer portal era appear to have robbed the Red Raiders of their highest-ranked player ever to sign you with the program.

On Sunday evening, it was widely reported by multiple sources that true freshman wide receiver Micah Hudson, a former 5-star high school recruit and high school All-American who was part of the Red Raiders’ 2024 recruiting class, has decided to enter the transfer portal when it opens on December 9th.

This ends a frustrating and disappointing chapter in the history of Texas Tech football. Unfortunately, this means that Hudson will never live up to his enormous potential while wearing Scarlet and Black, unless an unlikely change of heart occurs.

It seemed as if Hudson’s time in Lubbock was cursed from the moment he arrived. Although he was a freshman and arrived on campus in January, he was forced to miss most of the Red Raiders’ offseason program as he recovered from knee surgery.

As a result, Hudson was unable to learn the entire playbook as quickly as he needed to in order to fully dominate the offense and play multiple wide receiver positions as the coaching staff envisioned. With only one position left to play, he was placed behind junior wide receiver Caleb Doulas on the depth chart.

Therefore, Hudson’s opportunities to get on the field were limited. Because Douglas finished the regular season second on the team in catches (55) and receiving yards (762) and tied for the team lead in receiving touchdowns (6), the coaching staff was reluctant to take him off the field.

That meant Hudson was only used when Tech was using a five-receiver package or when plays were in the trash. Overall, he finished the year with just 8 receptions for 123 yards and no touchdowns. That’s nowhere near the expectations Texas Tech fans had for Hudson after head coach Joey McGuire repeatedly called him a “generational talent” during the offseason.

Due to the offseason hype, largely driven by McGuire, fans were incredibly excited to see Hudson in action this year. But as the season progressed and he didn’t see increased playing time, much of the Red Raider population became confused and frustrated by Hudson’s lack of opportunities, leading to almost weekly complaints about his usage (or lack thereof).

Now it appears that his time as a Red Raider will be limited to less than a calendar year. This isn’t the way most fans had hoped Hudson’s career in Lubbock would turn out, but many began to fear that this would become a reality as the season progressed and he had little playing time left. At least everyone can stop fretting over the Micah Hudson saga now that we know he’s going somewhere else.