If you have the time, watch the nearly 20 minutes of Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire’s opening press conference. If you don’t have time to watch or would prefer to read, you are in luck because ASAP Sports has the entire press conference transcribed:
Q. Considering how wide open this league has been the last two years and how wrong we’ve been in predicting the winner, do you see any reason why you guys can’t win this league this year considering everything that’s coming back?
JOEY McGUIRE: Well, I don’t want to say y’all are wrong, but you know, it is. If you go back and look, K-State and TCU, I don’t know where they were picked last year. I heard Sonny yesterday talk and maybe he said they were seventh, and they had such a great year.
The year before that you had Oklahoma State and Baylor. I think in 2020 Iowa State played in it and in 2019 Baylor played in it.
I do think it’s a wide-open conference. I think for us, we have to stay healthy. I know this is going to be coach-speak, but we really do have to handle the expectation that maybe a lot of guys on our roster have not had before.
We’ve got to stay humble. But we’ve got a really good opportunity to be a really good football team.
I’ll tell you our expectation is definitely to do that. We’ve just got to build on it every single week, and we’ve got a really tough schedule. It’s going to be a really fun schedule. We’ve got some tough road games and we’ve got some really good football teams coming into Lubbock. I’m glad that we have the two teams that played in the Big 12 Championship last year at home. That’s going to be a big advantage for us.
And this is the quote that got a ton of play as McGuire was asked about whether or not everything runs through Lubbock:
Q. After you beat Texas in overtime at your place, you said everything runs through Lubbock. Do you still stand by that, and do you feel like Tech may be in position to maybe be the flagship program of the Big 12 going forward?
JOEY McGUIRE: I love that question for so many reasons. For one reason because Pat Clancy is here and he is our storyteller for Texas Tech. I told him after that, I said some things are just for the locker room and some things are for everybody. He looked at me and he said, I’m sorry, Coach. And I said, you know what, Pat? There’s nothing that comes out of my mouth that I don’t truly 100 percent believe. So maybe that was for the locker room, but I still believe it.
I think that’s such a powerful word, and whenever you have that in a locker room, you can do some incredible things.
So I think our players do believe that. I do think in 2024 there’s an opportunity for some teams to take a huge step in this conference. It’s going to start this year with what we do, but whenever you have an administration and an alumni base that is behind a university like they are at Texas Tech, you do have that opportunity.
We have a $219 million project going on right now. We’ll have as good a facilities as anybody in the country. We have a very healthy locker room. We have a group of guys that believe in each other.
I feel like we’re in a really good spot. I can’t wait to get into Big 12 play. And kind of like last year, there’s going to be a lot of really good games, and we’re excited to be a part of them.
“My goal is: every single day when my players enter the building, it’s the best part of their day.”
🗣️ @JoeyMcGuireTTU pic.twitter.com/5KgME7d2Rj
— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) July 13, 2023
Houston Chronicle’s Joseph Duarte on the lining of McGuire’s sportscoat, which honored former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach:
“The guy was bigger than life,” McGuire said. “He’s going to be missed. I just wanted to tip my cap to him. I just wanted to say thank you to coach Leach, really for what he did for Tech and what he did for high school football in this state.”
#SwingYourSword 🏴☠️ pic.twitter.com/rUtPH6psx6
— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) July 13, 2023
NBCDFW’s Newey Scruggs picked Texas Tech to win the Big 12 conference and he interviewed McGuire (video at the link).
Midland Reporter-Telegram’s Oscar LeRoy on McGuire not backing down from expectations.
San Antonio Express-News’ Nick Moyle on Texas Tech’s belief in the opportunity to take a step up in the Big 12:
“Our goal is to win the Big 12,” McGuire said. “We didn’t do that (last year). So we gotta go to work again. And from the standpoint of building what we’re trying to build, we did some things that hadn’t been done. I do think it’s a wide-open conference. We’ve gotta stay humble but we’ve got a really good opportunity to be a really good football team.”
Video dump:
Red Raider Sports sent Jarrett Ramirez to Arlington and filed 3 posts: Tyler Shough on expectations; Tony Bradford and Jaylon Hutchings gearing up for their final season; and Jerand Bradley and Tahj Brooks embracing the challenge.
Not related to the Big 12 Media days, CBS Sports’ Chip Patterson writes about 10 second-year head coaches with important year two’s:
Joey McGuire, Texas Tech: With eight wins and a fourth-place finish in the Big 12 standings, there is a strong argument that Joey McGuire’s Year 1 was a success. But the pivot point for the Red Raiders comes in 2023, with the opportunity to establish the program as one of the top-tier teams in the new-look Big 12. Texas Tech was picked fourth in the preseason poll — as opposed to ninth heading into 2022 — and so it’s fair to say real expectations have arrived in Lubbock. McGuire has a chance to go from a plucky underdog to a Big 12 power.