Joey McGuire, Red Raiders preparing for the Orange Bowl
Texas Tech is back in practice this week, preparing to play in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. After the Red Raiders became Big 12 Champions on December 6th, defeating BYU 34-7, they will not have played their next game for almost an entire month. This has been good for injuries and getting players healthy, but also raises questions about how this team will be ready to go after being off for so long.
For head coach Joey McGuire, he realizes that all teams with a first-round bye last year lost, but he knows the maturity of his group and getting everyone healthy will make a big difference for the Red Raiders’ first playoff game.
“It’s really a daily challenge of like, how serious do y’all want to get another game, you know, and how much fun you’re having. The great thing is, we’re an older team. You know, the leaders have been tremendous leaders all year long. Player led team. So, you know, you just kind of wind Lee Hunter up and, you know, he’ll get some people where they need to be, you know, get going in a different direction,” McGuire told the media on Wednesday. “We got to get our work in. We want to have fun. Last night, we went to Evie Mae’s as a team. Tomorrow night, we’ll go to Main Event and bowl and play some games. And so, just trying to do both of like, since school’s not in and they’re out of their regular routine, make sure they’re focused, but also enjoying this time together.”
Energy is high
Because the Red Raiders are a player-led team, they know how to create their own energy, especially with leaders like Behren Morton, Jacob Rodriguez, Bryce Ramirez, and Lee Hunter. With Tech’s first playoff appearance coming up in just a couple of weeks, why shouldn’t the energy be there? Getting back to work to continue fighting for another game, as well as going home for Christmas, makes for an even happier practice environment.
“This is it’s really great for a lot of things, you know, like our players are going to get to go home for Christmas…we’ll practice Thursday, Friday, off Saturday, we’ll come back on Sunday, Monday, and we’ll do a walk through on the 23rd so we’ll do it really early so they can get out of here, so they can leave on the 23rd, 24th, 25th they’ll be off, and they’ve got to be back in town ready to practice on the 26th,” McGuire said. “Really working on, like, our base stuff that we know we’re going to run no matter who we play…we’ve been successful, so you don’t want to change a whole lot. And then great energy. It starts with a QB (Morton) running around. I haven’t seen him run the way he’s running, you know, in a while. I mean, he’s been both days full-go and, you know, usually we move him out of some stuff, and he looks really good.”
McGuire using critics as motivation
There have already been several predictions on who will win their first playoff matchups; many have predicted that the Oregon Ducks will beat James Madison and then go on to beat the Red Raiders. Tech has been doubted all season long, and even though the criticism they get isn’t the sole reason for their energy and motivation, it definitely adds an extra spark.
“I love that stuff. This team is fed off that stuff all year long. So we use it. The Athletic had an article that came out today with, I think there was 15 anonymous coaches, you know. And the one of the statements was that we’re the frauds of the playoffs. Number one of the highest percentage was Ole Miss, and number two was Texas Tech. And so I started practice with that,” McGuire said. “I think it’s good, you know, like we have some guys that that feed off of that in a good way. I wouldn’t say that if it was a team that, you know, couldn’t handle that, because there are teams that that’s like, really not what they feed off of. But, you know, Lee Hunter feeds off of that stuff…we’ve got this little video. It starts off with Dana White talking about bet against me…our guys love that. I start my PowerPoint off every Tuesday with that, so they can actually, like, recite every word of it. So, you know, to poke the bear with these guys are good.”
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