In a recent interview with Heartland College Sports’ Pete Mundo, Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire discussed Friday night football, Texas Tech’s life in the new Big 12, preseason expectations, and many more interesting topics.
McGuire is coming off back-to-back seasons ending in bowl games despite dealing with some injury problems, but going into 2024, McGuire believes there is even more reason for excitement. Here’s what McGuire had to say ahead about the Red Raiders’ 2024 season.
MUNDO: HOW DO YOU ACCESS YOUR FIRST TWO YEARS IN LUBBOCK?
McGuire: “I think in Year One, we did some things that a lot of people didn’t expect us to do. Year Two was really frustrating. We lost some games, we went to Wyoming and got beat. We have Oregon, we’re leading in the fourth quarter, and turn the ball over twice. We go to West Virginia and have an opportunity to go into overtime and we don’t get it done on that last drive. I think we left some stuff on the table last year. I hate to make excuses. You know, we talk about it all the time. We don’t make excuses, and we don’t let anybody make them for us, but when I said that, one of my mentors said, ‘Yeah, but there are reasons.’ I tell everybody it’s all about keeping the quarterback healthy. There’s no way in the world I would have thought Year One and Year Two, I would have to play three quarterbacks both years. And so we got to keep Behren healthy.”
MUNDO: WHAT CAN YOU DO DIFFERENTLY PROTECTION-WISE TO KEEP QBS HEALTHY?
McGuire: “Well, you got to improve up front, it starts with that. Everything that happens in football is a collective effort. Good and bad. And so it’s just not the offensive line, but we’re better up front. We’ve got to do a good job when it comes to our tight ends and our running backs in pass pro also, but then, you know, the thing I love about Behren is that he is a gunslinger. He thinks every play is a touchdown. He feels like he can extend every play, but he’s got to have a little bit different mindset. He got hit twice against K-State, and that was on him. I mean, there was no reason for him to take those hits. We, as a collective whole, have got to do a better job. We’ve got to all understand from the play call to the pass protection to where you can get the ball out, check downs, everything like that. We’ve got to do a good job with that.”
MUNDO: DOES BEHREN MORTON REMIND YOU OF ANYBODY IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL HISTORY?
McGuire: “You know, I hate to bring this guy up because it’s hard to compare anybody to the best quarterback in the world. But he has some similarities because of his arm angles that he could throw at whenever it’s talking about Patrick mahomes. He gets the ball out extremely quickly in the RPO game, so I love that. He also reminds me of two guys we played against. One guy that we played against was Will Grier. That was at West Virginia, man I loved Will. I loved his toughness, and his toughness factor reminds me a lot of Charlie Brewer. If you go back to ’17, ’18, and ’19, I don’t know if there was a tougher quarterback. He’s the toughest player I’ve ever been around in college football, but I don’t know that was a tougher quarterback in college football and those three years of what Charlie Brewer did at Baylor.”
MUNDO: WHAT GOES INTO MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS AT TECH WITH PATRICK MAHOMES?
McGuire: “We’re we’re really fortunate because he is a diehard Red Raider, the Adidas rollout with Patrick Mahomes and Texas Tech, he was a big part of it. He was really behind it, but man, that guy, he is so easy to be connected with because he does love this university. He sent me and Zach Kittley a text the other day that he was getting ready to play NCAA on PlayStation, and, you know, he’s playing with Texas Tech. And, you know, he sends that to me, I’m not reaching out to him. As much as I reached out to him, he’s sending me some really good stuff through texts and stuff like that. We’re very fortunate to have a guy like that. That’s just how this place is. I mean, Josh Jung for the Texas Rangers, World Champs, you know, he’s like that. Our favorite golfer right now, of course is Ludvig [Aberg]. If you look at his bag, he’s gonna have the double T on his bag in the open this week. I mean, the guys that are that are Red Raiders, man, they just love this place. And they’re so passionate about it.”
MUNDO: WHAT POSITION GROUP NEEDS TO SUCCEED IN 2024 FOR TEXAS TECH TO SUCCEED?
McGuire: “Yeah, that’s an easy answer, that’s wide receivers. You start looking at the number of yards after catch and what we’re doing with the ball, schematically there were so many times that we had to scheme things open, and I think the biggest improvement on this team and where the Red Raiders’ fan base is gonna be so excited is the wide receiver game. That starts with getting Josh Kelly, a transfer from Washington State, and 900 plus yards last year. Caleb Douglas got to get a Texas boy back home from Florida. Coy Eakin really came on at the end of last year and had a great year. Drae McCray, and then you add Micah Hudson. It’s funny, my AD, who’s my guy Kirby Hocutt, he’s the best in the business. He goes, ‘Are you backing off any of how good Micah Hudson is? And I said, ‘Not on your life, man.’ He is that good. I think that’s the biggest thing for us, and then you add in three tight ends that have NFL grades with Mason Tharp, Jalin Conyers, and Johncarlos Miller, I mean, two of the tight ends probably could have started for us at outside receiver last year in Jalin Conyers and Johncarlos Miller. Both of them had more yards per catch than any receiver that we had on our team. And so I think that skill position on offense is going to be the biggest change and why we’re so excited here at Texas Tech.”
MUNDO: WHAT DEFENSIVE POSITION NEEDS TO THRIVE IN 2024?
McGuire: “As a whole, this is the deepest team we’ve had in three years. But defensively, we’re really deep. You know, I always laugh; in my first year, my two defensive tackles played more snaps than anybody else in the country by 270 snaps. They were playing 760+ snaps their first year, and we basically had three guys that we could play at defensive tackle, and we got really lucky that we stayed healthy. We have seven defensive tackles that we feel like we could play in a game, we have 3+ defensive ends on both sides that we feel like could play in a game, and five linebackers. But the biggest growth that we have to have on the defensive side of the ball is where we lost some guys at safety. At free safety, we lost a draft pick, Dadrion Taylor Demerson, we lost him at free safety, and he got drafted by the Arizona Cardinals. We also lost a really good strong safety. Those are the guys; we have really good players there, but they just don’t have a lot of experience. So that’s what’s gonna be huge for them.”
MUNDO: WHAT CHANGES DO YOU ANTICIPATE BETWEEN THIS FALL AND LAST FALL?
McGuire: “We were really fortunate that we played really well at home, and we played really well in November. We start off five of our first seven games at home, in front of the best fans in the country, in front of a brand new South endzone, a $250 million project; it’s absolutely incredible. It is beautiful to be as good as anywhere in the country whenever it comes to the facility. But I think being at home and getting off to a fast start, and then we have to play better early on the road. We’ve got a really tough game against Washington State, where they’re going to induct Mike Leach into their Hall of Fame. And then we play at Arizona. I think one thing that we’re going to do, we’re going to be really aggressive on the road. We’re going to really, I don’t want to say take some chances, but even if it’s taking the ball first to try to get off to a fast start, we’ve got to play better on the road. Because the road games in November are going to be so tough.”
MUNDO: HOW DO YOU FACILITATE AGGRESSION GOING INTO FOOTBALL GAMES?
McGuire: “Now the decisions on fourth downs, and when we take time outs, kicking a field goal versus going for it is all on the numbers. I’ve always been really aggressive by nature, but a lot of those are numbers. But whenever I’m talking about being more aggressive, I remember whenever Chad Morris, his first time as offensive coordinator at Clemson, just talking about the number of shots that he’s going to take per quarter, going in with a certain number of trick, plays going in with a certain number of how many times he’s going to run some kind of misdirection or reverse. And so I really do think that you know, schematically, we can do some things to be more aggressive, and one reason we can is that we’re going to be better at certain positions on the offensive side of the ball.”
MUNDO: WHAT DOES PREPARING FOR FOUR NEW SCHOOLS IN BACK-TO-BACK SEASONS LOOK LIKE?
McGuire: “It’s really exciting. I’m excited for our fans. We’ve got a lot of people who have already told me they’re going out a couple of days early to Arizona to play some golf and then go to the game, but I’m really excited because I haven’t played in Arizona. We’ve never played Colorado or Arizona State. We actually got Cincinnati, and we didn’t play Cincinnati last year. So we get to play the one team of the new four from last year that we didn’t get to play, and I think it’s great. I think this conference, the one thing from top to bottom, I think it’s so tough, because I don’t care who it is and where you’re at. I mean, anybody can beat anybody on any given Saturday. You know, whenever you’re trying to create parity in college football, and this definitely happens in the Big 12. I mean, you have a lot of really good coaches, you have a lot of really good teams, and it’s gonna be a fun year. I’m excited we play Deion at home for the first time around.”
MUNDO: WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE PARITY IN THE BIG 12?
McGuire: “Yeah, I think it’s really important. You know, I think it’s important that we play well in the non-conference as a conference. I think it’s really important that those Saturday games, whenever we are in conference, are very competitive and entertaining. But you’re 100% right. I mean, there’s over half this conference or more that can win this conference or be one of the two teams that end up in Dallas for the Big 12 Championship. There’s going to be a lot of people that have that opportunity. It’s going to be who can stay healthy and who can win on the road. I think the road games are going to be so huge. I mean, they always are, but it’s gonna be huge in this conference. and, of course, staying healthy. I think that’s a big part of it. But I think we as a conference, early in the season, to kind of move some guys up, we’ve got to play well as conference in non-conference games.”
MUNDO: HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BIG 12 FOOTBALL HAPPENING ON FRIDAY NIGHTS?
McGuire: “I always used to say whenever I was young coach, you play football on Friday night, you watch college football, and go to church on Sunday, then get ready for the Cowboys and watch the Cowboys on Sunday afternoon or at noon whenever you get out of church. It’s different, but the one thing with the changing of revenue sharing, the changing of the conferences, and how the moves, you got to find a spot to make your mark, and if it’s the Big 12 on Friday night, as much as it’s going to be tough for me and adjustment because I am a traditionalist and definitely believe Friday night football, especially in the state of Texas, but it’s one of those deals that if we can make our mark and we can help our conference we have to do it you know in order to not just survive but in order to gain some ground some of the other conferences.
