McGuire says Texas Tech “out-toughed” K-State in 43-20 win
The recipe for Kansas State to dominate Texas Tech over the last decade-plus has been simple: be the tougher football team. The culture has remained the same even in the transition from the Bill Snyder era to now with Chris Klieman. It was a daunting task Saturday for Texas Tech to rise to this physicality, even with this refreshed roster. In the eyes of Joey McGuire, his team responded and rose as they needed to.
“I have so much respect for Chris Klieman, I think he’s one of the best coaches in the nation. He’s got a culture of toughness and the first couple of years we weren’t tough enough to beat those guys,” McGuire told Chris Level for Double T 97.3. “It came down to that, they were tougher than us. Today, I thought we out-toughed them, we out-hit them, we were more physical. We took the ball away at a higher level. They were No. 1 or No. 2 in the country in knocking the ball out. We ended up with five turnovers. Just a huge game.”
McGuire credits stable of LBs for the toughness charge
McGuire harped all week that the Red Raiders were going to have to take care of the football if they were going to win. On the flip side, turning over Kansas State’s offense led by the dynamic duo of Avery Johnson and Jayce Brown carried equal importance. Texas Tech’s linebackers played a major part in the Red Raiders forcing five Wildcat turnovers.
“Fear the ‘stache, man. Those freakin’, 6 (John Curry), 13 (Ben Roberts) and 10 (Jacob Rodriguez), man, they just have a knack for knocking the ball out. Oh, by far (the best), and that’s saying a lot, because I got a guy that’s playing for Buffalo in Terrell Bernard that I think is an absolute rock star. It’s like synchronized swimming, or I don’t even know how to describe it, they just move as one. They communicate so well together and Shiel (Wood) has them playing at a really high level.”
Another week, another “Biggest game since…” moment
Tech moved to 8-1 on the season with the win over K-State and officially secured a visit from ESPN’s College Gameday next week. With BYU coming into town, it sets up a potential top 10 matchup in Lubbock in what could be a defining moment in Tech history.
“As much as I’ve talked about coach Klieman is as much as I’ve talked about (BYU coach) Kilani (Sitake). Kilani’s amazing. You talk about a guy, what he’s done, loses his quarterback and has a freshman playing as good as anybody in the country. They’re a tough football team. They’re a really tough, physical football team. It’s gonna be a war, an absolute war. It’s what football is all about. That game right there is what football is all about.”
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