ESPN’s Max Olson sat down with Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury and Kingsbury talked about the pressure, and embracing the pressure, of coaching at his alma mater. Kingsbury has always said that there is a certain passion in coaching at the program where he played and playing for Texas Tech helped shape him:

“I think every day that you can come to a university you truly have incredible memories of — it helped mold you, helped shape you, you’re passionate about it and it’s your school, you put work in on the front end and back end and every which way — yeah, there’s not a lot of negatives to it,” Kingsbury said.

But Kingsbury also talked about the fact that because he’s accepted this spot, there is no escaping the pressure of winning:

“When you do lose, there’s no escaping it,” Kingsbury said. “All the best friends you’ve made in life are all Red Raiders. It surrounds you. There’s no way away from it.”

So I sorta love this, Kingsbury knew the pressure of coaching at Texas Tech, but he also knows that with it can come the feeling of achievment that only a person who graduated at Texas Tech can appreciate.

Defensive line coach Mike Smith maybe said it the best in that with all of these guys, playing for Texas Tech is personal:

“When you’ve put blood, sweat and tears on that field and give everything you’ve got to a university, it’s personal,” Smith said. “I think you can see that with our emotions, the way we coach, how involved we are, how we’re constantly working. It’s hard for me to believe there’s another coaching staff that works as hard as we do in everything.”

Olson noted something that’s been noted by Smith himself, which is that he turned down NFL opportunities to stay at Texas Tech.