It’s official. Texas Tech Football found their new Head Coach in Baylor’s Associate Head Coach Joey McGuire. The hiring comes two weeks after the dismissal of Matt Wells who finished his time on the South Plains with a 13-17 record in two and a half seasons.
McGuire takes over a Texas Tech Football program that has flirted with futility for the past decade and McGuire’s hire points to a new direction for the program by hiring the Texas High School legend who has spent the past five seasons on the Baylor staff with Matt Rhule and Dave Aranda doing quick rebuilds on the Brazos.
Is McGuire elite? Texas Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt threw around the word “elite” when describing the level he wants the Red Raider Football program and McGuire checks off one of the boxes that has been a bugaboo: recruiting. McGuire is a prolific recruiter in the Lone Star State and has been on the trail in West Texas to bring in talent to Waco. McGuire will have to stabilize West Texas recruiting to begin the rebuild.
McGuire has also been part of not one, but two rebuilds at Baylor with two different head coaches in the aforementioned Rhule and Aranda. Under Rhule, the first season was an atrocious 1-11 campaign with several close losses, but season two was a 7-6 rebound with a victory over Vanderbilt in the Texas Bowl. Rhule’s final season in Waco brought a Big 12 Championship appearance and a close Sugar Bowl loss to Georgia.
McGuire was close to being hired in 2019 before Baylor ultimately handed the job to Aranda and season two currently has Baylor in contention for another Big 12 Championship appearance and a Top 20 ranking. Texas Tech and Baylor square off in the regular season finale on November 27th in Waco.
The reality of the situation for Texas Tech and incoming regime is that the team likely won’t win another game this season, but there’s an upside. McGuire gets a head start that most new hires don’t have and that’s a three week lead time in recruiting before the season is over. The abundance of time to assemble a staff is also a benefit.
There will come a time when we see a coach fired early in the season and his successor will take over duties in midseason, just like you see around the world in soccer. The amount of money at stake in college football there’s only a matter of time before it happens. I’ll put my money Southern Cal doing this first since they’ve perfected early to midseason firings.
Allen Corbin is a trouble young man living in Utah . . . Actually, only the Utah part is true. We think. Glad he’s writing in Raiderland. Follow him on Twitter. https://twitter.com/allencorbin
