{"id":118863,"date":"2026-01-11T07:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T07:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/118863\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T07:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T07:49:08","slug":"texas-tech-adds-former-sfa-specialist-jacob-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/118863\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Tech adds former SFA specialist Jacob Hand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With senior punter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/jack-burgess-234341\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jack Burgess<\/a> out of eligibility, the Texas Tech coaches were looking to add competition and depth in the special teams room.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday night they accomplished their goal with a commitment from former SFA kicker\/punter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/jacob-hand-283792\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jacob Hand<\/a>. Upon officially entering the NCAA transfer portal on January 2nd, he says several coaches from different schools reached out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome coaches that reached out were Memphis, Nevada, Ohio, UTEP, Sam Houston and USF.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hand will arrive in Lubbock with two seasons of eligibility remaining. He returned home from his Texas Tech visit on January 10th and made his commitment just hours later.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe coaches were super welcoming and treated me like I was a part of a family right from the start,\u201d says Hand, on why he chose Texas Tech. \u201cThere are a lot of resources for me to get better at my job and recover.<\/p>\n<p>The facility and the field were probably my favorite. This was the first time I\u2019ve seen the field and the facilities in person and it was unreal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For his career, Hand has made 3-of-4 field goals attempts with a career long of 56 yards. He is also 1-of-1 on extra points. <\/p>\n<p>He has primarily been a kickoff specialist during his time as a Lumberjack. Since arriving in Nacogdoches he has kicked off 155 times for 9,659 yards, including 87 touchbacks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey will getting my best every single kick and I will work to be the best version of me I can be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hand will join a Texas Tech special teams unit that currently includes kicker Stone Harrington and punter\/kicker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/ian-hershey-149620\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ian Hershey<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Red Raiders currently have the No. 1 rated transfer portal class in the country per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/transfer-portal\/team-rankings\/football\/2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">On3\u2019s College Football Team Transfer Portal Rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Join the conversation with other Red Raiders on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/boards\/forums\/inside-the-double-t.282\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Inside The Double T<\/a>\u00a0forum.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/register\/?returnto=\/boards\/forums\/inside-the-double-t.282\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe today<\/a>\u00a0to get the most in-depth Texas Tech sports and recruiting coverage.<\/p>\n<p>Follow us on X:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/redraidersports?s=21&amp;t=lBfTSdY9NaAjam8V0TzQBg\" rel=\"nofollow\">@RedRaiderSports<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Like and follow us on Instagram\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/rrs_rivals?igsh=MWMyNDRsazdnMG5lZA==\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@rrs_rivals<\/a>\u00a0&amp; like us on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/redraidersports?mibextid=LQQJ4d\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With senior punter Jack Burgess out of eligibility, the Texas Tech coaches were looking to add competition and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[51964,168,170,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-118863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lubbock","8":"tag-jacob-hand-23-mansfield","9":"tag-lubbock","10":"tag-lubbock-headlines","11":"tag-lubbock-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}