Joey McGuire highlights Oregon's physicality, speed prior to Orange Bowl
The Texas Tech Red Raiders and Oregon Ducks will square off in Miami on New Year’s Day for a spot in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl. The Ducks are coming off a first round victory over James Madison in Eugene. The Red Raiders earned a first round bye and will play their first game since overpowering BYU in Arlington to win the Big 12 Championship. Joey McGuire caught up with the media on Monday to discuss the matchup.
The Ducks’ Physicality & Speed
If you watched the James Madison-Oregon game into the late hours on Saturday, you’d see how overpowered the Dukes were against the Ducks. Some may tie that to the talent gap between the two squads, but Coach McGuire sees them as one of the fastest teams Texas Tech has seen up to this point. As for the physicality aspect of it all, Coach McGuire thinks they are extremely impressive up front.
“Yeah, they’re a really fast team. Probably top one or two, whenever you’re talking about team speed in teams that we’ve faced this year. We’re going to have to do a good job. I think it really starts with trying to stop the run because then it really puts us in a situation where we have a higher percentage of them passing the football. And now we’ve earned the right to rush the passer, trying to put pressure on those guys.”
“…They’re very physical up front. They’ve got multiple defensive tackles, but the guys that really jump off tape are #1 (Bear Alexander) and #52 (A’Mauri Washington), extremely physical. We’ve got to do a good job of taking care of the down linemen. The other thing that they’re really impressive, they’ve got three running backs that play at such a high level, two are true freshmen.”
“They’re home run hitters. They’re very explosive. I mean, we saw that Saturday in the JMU game. You look up and they’ve already scored 30-plus points. I think they had five touchdowns on five drives. So, they’re really explosive. We’ve got to do a good job of making them drive the field.
“A little bit different at quarterback, even though he’s a dual threat. I mean, he’s pretty special throwing the football, (Dante) Moore is. But Utah, as far as their physicality on defense, they’ve got really good length at corner and the secondary. So, I’d say a little bit like Utah.”
Redzone Efficency
Texas Tech has stressed the importance of ending redzone drives with touchdowns instead of field goals. Labelling the redzone as the No Stone Zone, referring to kicker Stone Harrington. Oregon is statistically the worst remaining in the College Football Playoff, and in the country at 121st out of 134 teams in redzone defense. Joey McGuire reemphasized finishing in the redzone, and attacking the Ducks once they are able to enter.
“One of the big things is we’ve got to get there. I think there’s a lot of times when you say they’ve struggled in the red zone. They probably haven’t had a lot of red zone trips, teams having opportunities against their defense. But I think when we’ve played well in the red zone, we’ve executed at a really high level. So, I think it comes down to that. It’s definitely going to be really good that our quarterback’s going to be a lot more mobile than what he has been so he can extend plays. I think that will help us in the red zone with him extending plays.”
Join the conversation with other Red Raiders on the Inside The Double T forum.
Subscribe today to get the most in-depth Texas Tech sports and recruiting coverage.
Follow us on X: @RedRaiderSports
Like and follow us on Instagram @rrs_rivals & like us on Facebook.
