The Texas Tech Athletics Communications department was honored on Tuesday by the Football Writers Association of America as one of its 2024 Super 11 Award recipients. The Super 11 Award is presented annually to the best-performing College Sports Communicators departments in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.
“We’re proud of our communications team for this well-deserved recognition,” Texas Tech Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt said. “Their professionalism and commitment to telling the Texas Tech story makes an impact on all of our programs each and every day.”
Texas Tech’s football communications staff is led by assistant athletics director Matt Dowdy, director of communications Matt Burkholder and associate director of communications Chris Duarte.
“I am very proud for our staff to be recognized with this honor by the FWAA,” Dowdy said. “I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge our head football coach Joey McGuire, who is easily among the most accessible head coaches in college football. It starts at the top with him, with the access he gives us to the football program and the ability to tell the stories of our student-athletes. This award is a great compliment to our entire football program – from support staff, coaches and our student-athletes – for how they represent the Texas Tech brand and allow us to publicize their success.”The 16th edition of the Super 11 Class features Texas Tech (2), along with Army (1), California (3), Clemson (12), Iowa (3), Navy (8), Nebraska (11), Pittsburgh (7), South Carolina (3), Tennessee (3) and West Virginia – the all-time award count is identified in parentheses.
This year’s winners were deemed to have had excellent accessibility during the week of their games and after the game with a program’s players, coaches and coordinators/assistant coaches. Other criteria regarding beat reporter access, interview requests, and decorum and protocols in the press box and locker room are listed in the 2024-25 FWAA Directory.
“Access is required to write the best examples of storytelling in our business,” said 2025 FWAA President Bill Bender of The Sporting News. “These departments set a standard with a friendly working relationship in an era where access is in some ways more difficult to come by. That professionalism helps create an environment where we can tell those behind-the-scenes stories about their players and coaches. We are grateful to these 11 schools for promoting that model.”
In January of 2009, the FWAA released the first Super 11 Awards – a concept supported by the College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA). The FWAA has now awarded at least one Super 11 Award to 82 FBS different programs.
