"We Like Being Texas Tech": Red Raiders Respond to 'Villain' Label at WCWS
If it wasn’t already clear what role Texas Tech has been cast as at the Greatest Show on Dirt, the words villain or villainous came up six different times during their 15-minute opening press conference at the Women’s College World Series on Wednesday.
The team brushed it off though, just as they have all year. They know who they are.
“We like being Texas Tech,” Jackie Lis said. “No matter what role we’re going to get, we’re going to thrive in it and we’re going to do us.”
For a program that just a few years ago was trying to establish itself nationally, Texas Tech arrived in Oklahoma City carrying a very different reputation. The Red Raiders are no longer the underdog story. They are one of the biggest storylines in the sport, a transfer-heavy roster that quickly rose into national title contention and has become impossible to ignore.
The players did not sound interested in pushing back against the perception. They just were not interested in letting it define them either.
“Looking at us as villains, it’s something I kind of figured walking into Texas Tech,” Kaitlyn Terry said. “But that doesn’t define us… we’re all playing softball at the end of the day.”
Head coach Gerry Glasco sounded perfectly comfortable with the attention that comes with it.
“If softball needs me to be the villain, I’m all about it. Let’s go,” Glasco said. “It’s fun. I embrace that role.”
But Glasco also pushed back on the narrative that continues to follow Texas Tech. The transfer portal, and specifically the constant reminder that 15 of the 23 players on the roster came through it, has repeatedly become attached to the Red Raiders’ rise. He took over a program that had never been past a Regional before and in two years has gotten them to two World Series, roster rebuilding was essential to that journey.
“Like Holly [Rowe] was talking about, 15 out of 23 players were transferred. I only had three, so what am I going to do?” Glasco said. “You have to grow the program.”
Glasco later suggested much of the outside reaction comes because Texas Tech did not follow the traditional blueprint to become a national contender. But he made it clear that inside the program, there is nothing complicated about what they are doing.
“We’re doing things that maybe have never been done before, or at least not been done in a similar fashion, and it’s confusing,” Glasco said. “But for us on the field, it’s just every day. We just work every day. We work really hard and I’m enjoying every moment.”
The players seemed to share that view. NiJaree Canady said much of the criticism surrounding movement in college athletics is simply part of what comes with a sport gaining more attention.
“Everyone talks about wanting to grow softball, wanting more eyes on softball,” Canady said. “Transfers happen in male and female sports. So if you want the game to grow, this stuff kind of comes with it.”
Whether people love Texas Tech or love to root against them, they are watching. Maybe just maybe those that tune in will learn who they really are.
For Lis, that’s someone appreciating her first trip to Oklahoma City as she closes out her final collegiate season. A place she has always dreamed of playing, a dream she set out to fulfill when the opportunity to play at Tech came about in the offseason.
“For me, it’s very exciting to be here. It’s my last year playing collegiate softball, so I’m just trying to take it one game at a time and try to get as far as we can,” Lis said.
For Terry, returning to the Women’s College World Series with Texas Tech after being there with UCLA the past two seasons carries a different feeling than a year ago.
“It’s definitely very fun to be back, different jersey on,” Terry said. “It’s been insane the way me and this team have evolved from the fall to now.”
And for Canady, a superstar in the sport who has now completed the feat of making it to the WCWS in all four of her college seasons, the perspective stretches well beyond softball.
“I feel like my job here is just to spread my faith to as many people as I can,” Canady said when asked how she leans on her faith. “I’m just using softball to spread that message.”
Texas Tech may have been assigned a role by the outside world, but in reality the Red Raiders are a group of players enjoying the chance to chase a national championship together.
They get their first chance to do that in game one of the 2026 WCWS Thursday at 11am CT versus Mississippi State. Game will be aired on ESPN.
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