College Football's Top 25 Most Important Players in 2026: No. 23 DT A.J. Holmes Jr., Texas Tech

Texas Tech Red Raiders defensive tackle A.J. Holmes Jr. comes in at No. 23 in CFB HQ's ranking of the top 25 most important players ahead of the 2026 college football season.

This list includes 10 defensive players and only 6 quarterbacks. It's best to spread the love and attention to all positions rather than focus on offensive stars. You can look forward to a new article just about every day until we reach No. 1!

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No. 23: A.J. Holmes Jr., DT, Texas Tech Red Raiders

Texas Tech sent a school-record nine players to the 2026 NFL Draft, six of them from Shiel Wood's defense. Linebacker Jacob Rodriguez went No. 43 overall to Miami after winning the Bronko Nagurski, Chuck Bednarik and Dick Butkus awards.

Edge rushers David Bailey and Romello Height, defensive tackle Lee Hunter and safety Cole Wisniewski all heard their names called. The unit that allowed 10.9 points per game, led the nation in rushing defense and carried the Red Raiders to their first Big 12 championship since 1955.

The 6-foot-3, 300-pound Houston native arrived at Texas Tech from the transfer portal in December 2024 after three seasons at Houston, where he played under Wood during the coordinator's one year with the Cougars.

Texas Tech Red Raiders defensive tackle A.J. Holmes Jr. — Texas Tech's A.J. Holmes Jr. jogs off the field prior to the Big 12 Conference championship. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Holmes compiled 67 career tackles, 13.5 for loss and 4.5 sacks across 29 games and 1,256 defensive snaps at Houston, leading all Big 12 interior defenders in quarterback hurries among 2027 NFL Draft-eligible players as a sophomore in 2024.

Wood's familiarity with what Holmes could do factored directly into the transfer. ESPN's Max Olson reported that Wood believed Holmes hadn't come close to reaching his ceiling.

That belief proved correct. Holmes appeared in all 14 games in 2025, beginning the season as Skyler Gill-Howard's backup before stepping into the starting lineup after Gill-Howard went down in the Kansas game.

From that point forward, Holmes produced 38 tackles, 9.0 for loss, and 4.5 sacks with 37 quarterback pressures, four pass breakups at the line of scrimmage and a forced fumble. His two-sack, eight-pressure performance against Kansas and his strip-sack of BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier in the Big 12 Championship Game were signature moments on a defense full of them.

Holmes at center of formidable Red Raiders' defense

Pro Football Focus graded Holmes at 84.8 overall, seventh nationally among interior defensive linemen and first in the Big 12 among those with at least 300 snaps.

His 88.1 run-defense grade trailed only Rodriguez on the entire team and ranked third nationally at his position behind Ohio State's Kayden McDonald and Georgia's Christen Miller. The Associated Press named him a second-team All-American. PFF put him on its first team.

Holmes will wear No. 10 this fall, the same jersey Rodriguez wore during his award-winning 2025 campaign. The number change carries symbolic weight for a player stepping out of a supporting role and into the anchor spot on a defensive line that will look fundamentally different.

Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire attends spring practice. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Behind Holmes, transfers Julien Laventure from Akron and JoJo Johnson from Oregon State provide depth, and veteran Jayden Cofield can slide between tackle and nose guard to keep the rotation fresh.

Texas Tech's defense needs Holmes to absorb the attention that Rodriguez, Hunter and Bailey commanded in 2025 while the next wave of portal additions and young talent develops around him.

Joey McGuire's program proved last season that it can compete at the sport's top level, reaching the CFP quarterfinal before falling to Oregon, 23-0, in the Orange Bowl. Whether the Red Raiders can sustain that standard starts with the 300-pounder wearing No. 10.

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