Joey McGuire focused on Oklahoma State, responding to adversity
After being handed their first loss of the season by Arizona State, Texas Tech is still focused on the ultimate goal of being Big 12 champions and getting to Arlington. However, that isn’t accomplished unless the Red Raiders handle business for the last five games of the season. With injuries on both sides of the ball against the Sun Devils and losing the majority of the game, Tech fought back to take the lead late in the 4th quarter.
Despite the loss, head coach Joey McGuire learned a lot about himself and his team. Going through adversity allows you to see several things to work on, and he is focused on moving away from the loss and towards Oklahoma State.
“I was extremely proud of our guys. There was nothing that went our way, in a lot of ways… we knocked three balls out. And you know, if somebody told me we wouldn’t have got on at least one of those balls, and we have an interception drop that led to a field goal. So there’s a lot of things that didn’t go our way,” McGuire told the media on Monday. “So what it showed me about the team is they’re going to fight. When you get in games like that and you don’t have a strong game, you start hearing a lot of different things on the sideline. It was nothing like that. We’re going to find out a lot about ourselves and how we’re going to bounce back… I was really proud of our coaches, because they were already saying, ‘Hey, I wished I would have done this. I wish I had done this.’ So they took ownership. I took ownership right off the bat.”
Injuries still a question
Quarterback Behren Morton was out against the Sun Devils, and McGuire said he is still day-to-day this week and will see if he feels good to play against Oklahoma State. With Skyler-Gill Howard out for the rest of the regular season, a big leadership voice has left the defense. Other injuries on Saturday were Terrence Carter, who left the game with an ankle injury, but there were updates regarding his status.
“He (Morton) ran yesterday in the pool, ran today. He’ll run again this afternoon… I wished he could have played. He wished he could have played, but we’re going to take it day to day,” McGuire said. “We want to take care of our business and control what we can control. And you know, that’s beating Oklahoma State this week and and getting ready for what’s next. And so I think it’d be really important to have a really fully healthy Behren Morton. There’s a couple guys like that. They’re a little banged up. Can we get those guys as healthy as we can, to get ready, you know, for this week and the weeks to come?”
McGuire on Oklahoma State
Now heading into a game against the last-ranked team in the Big 12, the Red Raiders are solely focused on beating the Cowboys and getting back into the win column. With a difficult season so far for Oklahoma State, that is not affecting Tech’s preparation, and they are focused on going 1-0 this week.
“Quarterback is going to be really athletic. He can run around. We played two athletic quarterbacks last two weeks. At times, they’ve hurt us with their feet, so we’re going to have to do a good job of that,” McGuire said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys that really need to focus and bounce back and get some momentum, grab the momentum back… I’m pissed off at myself, I take ownership of that loss, and I’m asking everybody else in this building do the same thing and be pissed off this week and from here on out and see if we can’t really have an edge on Saturday against Oklahoma State.”
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