Only about 16 minutes for the off-week presser, which sounds about right. My guess is that recruiting will heat up a bit this week. The most interesting thing for me is that McGuire wants all three quarterbacks back because Zach Kittley has packages for all three of them on the field AT THE SAME TIME. I’m interested.

Head Coach Joey McGuire

• Need the bye week. Have some guys we’ll get back. Cam’Ron Valdez, all 3 quarterbacks, Tyler Shough threw 7-on-7, some guys didn’t practice as much so they can get their bodies back, Malik Dunlap and Tyler Owens have had a shoulder. Was good, able to scrimmage the young guys, they’ll do the same thing tomorrow.
• Shough not fully cleared, cleared to throw, we’ll look at both docs on Monday and probably think it will be Baylor, could clear him and gets banged on and could be good for West Virginia. Behren Morton had ankle sprain, he’s tough. They are all 3 tough. Donovan Smith threw good today, we had a team period, good-on-good and threw the ball well today.
• It’s tough, difficult decision, my job is to put the guys on the field to beat WVU. Have to get ready for all 3 of them.
• I want them all 3 on the field at the same time. We have some stuff we worked on all fall, we’re not there yet, maybe for the Baylor game. Having packages, whoever the starter is, you don’t want to take a guy out of his rhythm. Have packages to help you win games. Donovan does a great job of throwing on the run and quarterback power. Behren runs tempo how fast he gets the ball out. Tyler with decision making puts us in really good place.
• The only reason I don’t say WVU is because Shough is not cleared yet, if he’s cleared on Monday then expect him to play. Until the doctor tells me. He hasn’t had any setbacks. The way he’s throwing the ball, he’s ahead of schedule.
• The tough thing, I don’t think it changes. If Baylor isn’t ranked they are top 15, Kansas is 15. West Virginia had Kansas at their place. OU was ranked. Who knows what these teams will be by the time we play them. We have 10 football teams you’ll play. Interesting how we beat each other up. I think Texas has juice right now, Iowa State is really good on defense, every week in the Big 12 is really tough.
• [Could not hear question] Mixture of Covid, if you look at the guys who are playing, there are a lot of 5 or 6 year guys, some of those guys have been in college for 5 or 6 years, has made the conference a lot deeper and playing some young men, on the offensive side of the ball, we’re growing up and playing young players and still producing.
• I think the defensive line continues to play well and do what we ask them to do. Tony Bradford is the most productive in his career. Proud of our receiver room, besides Myles Price no one has played a ton of football. Trey is playing good football, Bradley, Xavier, Nehemiah you don’t miss a beat.
• I think you always grow, the one thing I told the older guys, we have to make better choices, different standpoints of the game. We really didn’t win because we didn’t do our job. Mistakes was one guy, anytime we say “we” I’m searching my soul to make better choices to win a game. We’ve all been a part of getting beat. in our 3 losses we have lost games by the way we play.
• With Tahj Brooks, SaRodorick Thompson got hot, has run as well he’s run all year long, Tahj had a really good run in counter, but SaRodorick was running well. When a guy is hot, they defer to the other.
• The receiving room, getting, Coy Eakin gets back and will be ready against West Virginia. Loic Fouonji has had an AC sprain and has played through that stuff, will add to that depth. Myles didn’t practice, we won’t practice until Tuesday, he’s the energizer bunny in the room, took him on the trip even though we knew he couldn’t play, we wanted his voice and he’s such a great leader. Going into WVU we’ll be as healthy since game 1.
• Our guys every snap. I don’t think there’s been a snap where we weren’t fighting. Had chances in those losses and wins. Put us in a position to win games. Pad level on 4th and 1, had a perfect ball. Didn’t have the right guy on the quarterback. That starts with me, how many reps did they see a look to make a play. Some of our stuff is losing we are losing pre-snap, comes from more concentration and more reps. Don’t want to use that as an excuse.
• [Think question was about Ty Buchanan] Had a good day in live stuff. He’s never play left tackle. He’s getting a bye week will help, the frustrating thing, you can recognize a sack on the tackle, should have been 1 sack on Saturday, easy to pick on the one guy, should the ball already have been out, is the receiver running the right depth. We did a much better job of protecting and did good things chipping the d-line.
• Jah’Shawn Johnson is a superstar in this business, obviously everyone knows he has a high IQ, relates to the players and is hard on the players. He’s extremely demanding and relates to them. I’m glad we got him.
• [Re. Matt Rhule] Texted him yesterday, talked to my son yesterday. Just said I love ya and said it is a tough business. Talked to Coach Snow, and Garrett, whenever one of your mentors loses his job it is tough, he’ll learn from it and get better.
• He has to finish out what he’s doing, that’s one thing 1 to 3 weeks on deciding what he’ll do. He should be in football, he’s good for college and pro football. Said the same thing to Gary Patterson because I think he’s good for college football.