"Our guys know exactly what's at stake." Joey McGuire talks final regular season game in Morgantown
The time has finally come to see if Texas Tech can do what many said they couldn’t: play for a Big 12 Championship in Arlington. Because the Red Raiders handled business all season long despite a close loss to Arizona State in Tempe, their fate is in their hands. With a win on Saturday against West Virginia, the Red Raiders will secure a spot in the Big 12 Championship game.
Right before head coach Joey McGuire opened the floor up for questions at Monday’s press conference, he told the media, “I know you’re going to ask, our guys know exactly what’s at stake.” Taking each week one game at a time and going “1-0” has been Tech’s mindset all season. While that mindset continues, knowing a win will secure a Big 12 Championship spot provides an even greater motivator.
“If we don’t win the game, we’re not in. You bring in a lot of scenarios. You know, in the one scenario we bring in is two losses, and if Arizona State wins on Friday, you know, I think some head to head stuff and just comparisons, we’re not in the Big 12 Championship,” McGuire told the media on Monday. “We’re looking at this game to where we’re coming in, and we want to be as healthy as possible. We are because of the bye week. It’s not a, you know, protect this guy, protect this guy, because if you don’t win on Saturday, you don’t get to the Big 12 Championship. You can’t save anybody for anything else.”
What McGuire sees from West Virginia
The Mountaineers are 2-6 in conference play and 4-7 overall, making them ineligible for a bowl game this season. Despite their record, West Virginia is playing their best football right now. Morgantown is always a tough place to play, and the cold weather predicted is a factor going into the 11 am matchup. McGuire mentioned that winning at their stadium hasn’t happened often, but that doesn’t affect how they approach Saturday.
“Coach Rodriguez, is an offensive guru, like he is. They’re going to tempo. You go back and look at his career. I mean, he’s kind of the king of the tempo. He’s got playmakers. They do a great job of getting the ball on the perimeter. You know, I think that’s going to be a part of it. They’re playing really, really hard,” McGuire said. “I’ll tell you right now, they’re playing really hard, and whenever you got that, that means they still believe, I think that has a lot to do with their freshman quarterback… they’re sitting there 4-7, so they can’t be bowl eligible, but you get to play the #5 team in the in the nation, they’re going to be jacked up. It’s a really tough place to play…we’re taking this game, like every game we’ve played this year, that this is a playoff game for us. We know that we win, we’re in.”
Culture continues to be their greatest strength
One of the biggest concerns people had about whether this team would be successful was the number of new guys coming in, as well as two new coordinators. It takes time for a team to gel, get used to each other, the coaches and environment around them. McGuire has said that this team’s greatest strength is their love for each other. The culture that they have continues to be one of the most significant contributors to their success.
“I just give our players that have been here from the beginning a lot of credit on helping us do that. You know, Behren (Morton), Bryce Ramirez, Jacob Rodriguez, are kind of the leaders in that group. But you know, Ben (Roberts) and John (Curry) and Coy (Eakin) and Sheridan (Wilson), all those guys are right there with it. I think that’s been a big part of it,” McGuire said. “They really buy in. I think this is a great place. The community is absolutely incredible. I think that’s one of the biggest things. I think y’all heard Lee Hunter say it the other day, you know that he wished he’d been here from the beginning. I think part of that is because the people of Lubbock have been so great for these guys. I thought we could really get close, but I would have never dreamed that we would have gotten this close. Like this team it seems like they’ve been together from high school recruiting until now.”
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