"It's almost like AI...the cats doing backflips." Joey McGuire Speaks To Noise Around Paying Players
There’s been a lot of noise surrounding Texas Tech’s offseason moves and numbers thrown out on revenue sharing contracts or NIL deals. But what is really real and what isn’t? Red Raider football head coach Joey McGuire spoke about all the chatter at the 93rd annual Texas High School Coaches Association (THSCA) Convention in San Antonio.
“You don’t ever hear it from us, because we are going to focus on us….It’s almost like AI….the cats doing backflips. ‘That looks real, is that real?’,” explained McGuire in a clip from the event posted by Ronald Harrod Jr. on Twitter. “Well it’s like that, your just throwing stuff out there. You have no idea what you’re talking about. No matter what the number is, the whole deal is the salary cap, what have you allotted to that room.”
A lot of that noise arose from the differing reports on the contract numbers for recently committed industry rated five-star Felix Ojo. Despite not having them in his public top four, one of the top offensive lineman in the class of 2026, announced Texas Tech as his future school on July 4. Soon there after news broke on what was being called “the largest guaranteed deal in CFP history.”
Then only minutes later those numbers were disputed by other sources and it was clarified that the contract details weren’t quite as cut and dry. Leading to more chatter, noise and spaghetti being thrown at walls from every direction – it’s the offseason way after all.
Is it the general public’s right to know the true details? Probably not. Will there come a day these contracts are more clearly laid out and public? Maybe. But it’s really no different than the numerous clauses, escalators and other nuances of professional contracts that are rarely discussed openly either outside of the headlines on signing day. And that’s the truth of it fans will have to continue to wrap their heads around. College sports, especially football, have become a pro model as a result of the House Settlement allowing schools to pay athletes directly up to 20.5 million. A notion McGuire spoke to at the THSCA convention as well.
“Just like the NFL. Quarterbacks are going to get paid more, guys that can hit the quarterback are going to get paid more. Guys that protect the quarterback are going to get paid more,” explained McGuire. “If I have allotted how ever many millions of dollars to that room how I use that money to one player or ten players, that’s on me. We are still within the number of what our salary cap is.”
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