Texas Tech football DT Skyler Gill-Howard makes NFL draft declaration
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The Texas Tech football program has been awaiting a verdict on whether defensive tackle Skyler Gill-Howard can receive a waiver for an extra year of eligibility.
Gill-Howard won’t be back with the Red Raiders next season regardless. He announced on Friday, Jan. 23, he’s declaring for this spring’s NFL draft.
Shortly afterward, a Texas Tech athletics spokesman said Gill-Howard’s waiver request for an additional year of eligibility had been denied by the NCAA. The 2025 season was Gill-Howard’s fifth in college football after he spent 2021 at Upper Iowa, an NCAA Division II program, and 2022 through 2024 at Northern Illinois.
Typically, a player can’t receive a medically related eligibility clock extension if he’s played in more than 30% of his team’s regular-season games.
Gill-Howard started the first six games of the 2025 season, his first with Texas Tech after he transferred from NIU. He suffered a lower-leg injury in the first quarter of the Oct. 11 game against Kansas, underwent surgery and didn’t play again the rest of the reason. He was credited with 13 tackles, including 2 1/2 tackles for loss and returned an interception 55 yards for a touchdown against Kent State.
In addition to Gill-Howard, Tech loses starting defensive tackle Lee Hunter, who received second-team all-America recognition from the Football Writers Association of America and third-team honors from The Associated Press, and rotation player Dooda Banks. Three other defensive tackles — Amier Washington, Kasen Long and Tanner Allen — have had their names in the NCAA transfer portal this month.
The Red Raiders also will be without returning defensive tackle Jayden Cofield for an indefinite period after he suffered a lower-leg injury on New Year’s Day in the Orange Bowl and underwent surgery.
The Tech staff already has been at work this month rebuilding the defensive tackles unit. It has landed four from the transfer portal: Julien Laventure from Akron, Bryce Butler from Washington, Mateen Ibirogba from Wake Forest and JoJo Johnson from Oregon State.
The Red Raiders’ returning cast of defensive tackles is headed by second-team All-American A.J. Holmes. The other defensive tackles from the 2025 roster with eligibility remaining are Keyshawn Williams, who’ll be a sophomore, and Dylan Singleton, who’ll be a redshirt freshman.
This story was updated with additional information.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football DT Skyler Gill-Howard makes NFL draft declaration
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