- 6 weeks ago
Texas Tech head football coach Joey McGuire joined Shan and Bobby to discuss the upcoming college football season. McGuire broke down the growing expectations in Lubbock, starting QB Will Hammond, navigating off-season PR drama, and more.
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00:00A very special Friday treat as Pepe has locked up and secured the head coach of the Texas Tech Red
00:07Raiders and he's been cool enough to join us on the fan cam, Twitch, and YouTube.
00:11He is the great Joey McGuire here on Sean and Bobby 105.3 The Fan.
00:16Good morning, coach. How are you?
00:18Man, I'm great. It's great to see you guys.
00:21Is it?
00:23It is. Especially you, Sean. I don't know about Bobby, but especially you, bro.
00:28Now, coach, I was doing my homework on you and I saw a little profile piece of Reese Davis that
00:34hit close to home that you're a big Corvette guy.
00:38My 89-year-old father had a, I think it was a 79.
00:43Last year, the Stingray or the year before the Stingray, but it had the curves.
00:47I don't like the flattened out hoods. I need some shape and some curves on my car.
00:54And he was shopping out here as an 89-year-old for a Corvette to get back home.
00:59So, how much Corvette love do you have? How many do you have? And is it manual or stick?
01:06So, it's manual. It's brand new.
01:09But this is how it all started. Whenever my wife and I started dating and we were just telling stories,
01:15goals in life and everything, I told her, I said, I'm going to own a Corvette by the time I'm
01:1950.
01:19I have no idea why that number.
01:23I don't think you ever arrived.
01:25So, it wasn't something like that.
01:26It was just something in me.
01:28And for my 50th birthday, five years ago, she bought me a brand new black Stingray.
01:36It was absolutely incredible.
01:38And I just turned 55 on August 6th, and she surprised me.
01:44She surprised me with the first one.
01:45And then I only have one.
01:47She traded the black one in, and I got a brand new.
01:50You know, it's a 2027 Corvette.
01:54It has all the bells and whistles.
01:56It is beautiful.
01:57Red and black.
01:58Got to go red and black.
02:00Now, Coach, Bobby, throughout this entire offseason, has said, not only is Texas Tech on the map, they are a
02:08legit force.
02:10Props to you, the awesome local story.
02:13We'll get to Cody Campbell in a little bit.
02:15Does it feel different now, targets on the back there in Lubbock?
02:20And just talk about this transformation and where you all are.
02:23You know, I think coming into the building, I think it does feel different, you know, because whenever you're trying
02:31to do something, win the Big 12, then, you know, you're working and you're, you really are like, man, we
02:37can do it.
02:38But until you do it, you don't.
02:40There's still that doubt because you haven't done it before.
02:43You know, we've done it, so there's an expectation that, you know, it's all up, and you can really feel
02:48it in the building with everybody.
02:50I mean, every single person that works in our building, from our dieticians to our training staff, I mean, they
02:56really do.
02:57It feels different.
02:58And then, you know, it's one of those deals.
03:00I think if we would have played better in the playoffs, then there might be, hey, there's a target on
03:08our back.
03:08But, man, we got a group of guys, you know, I have six starters on offense and six starters on
03:13defense coming back from that team.
03:15And, man, they're pissed off.
03:16We did not play well at all.
03:18I mean, we did on defense, but as a team, we didn't play well.
03:21And so our last memory of football, you know, in 2025, 26, was Oregon beating us the way they did.
03:30And so their goal is to play better once we get to the playoffs.
03:34Coach McGuire, you know, I'm just curious.
03:37You guys obviously had a very eventful summer leading up to things with the whole quarterback situation with Brendan Sorsby.
03:43Before we get into anything specifically with that, Will Hammond is the focus now.
03:48Now, talk about what you have in Will Hammond and how you feel about him heading into the season
03:53and why he's the right guy to lead you guys as you look to really build on what you did
03:57last season.
03:58Yeah, we're so fortunate to have Will.
04:01I mean, you're talking about a fan favorite and then a locker room favorite.
04:04Our guys absolutely love him, man.
04:06He's a guy's guy.
04:07He friggin' a football guy.
04:09You know, if you look, if he doesn't get hurt, we didn't go through any of the stuff that we
04:14went through.
04:15You know, and at the end of the day, it made us better.
04:17The first thing our guys will tell you, we're a closer team because of the adversity we had to face.
04:23But having Will Hammond, there's a belief because they knew he was going to be the starter if he didn't,
04:28you know, get hurt.
04:29And so, really important to have him.
04:31He's in a great spot.
04:34You know, he's fully released.
04:35He's ready to go week one.
04:37He's had a really good camp.
04:39He's had that, you know, we're really good on defense.
04:42We're really good up front.
04:43And so, of course, we don't hit the quarterback, but he has to move because we put pressure on him.
04:48And he's moved around really well.
04:50So, we're excited about Will Hammond.
04:52The great Joey McGuire here on Sean and RJ, 105.3 The Fan, Fan Cam, Twitch, and YouTube.
04:58Texas Tech fans showing up here.
05:00Cleburne Firehouse to show their support for a coach and the program.
05:04Bobby put it nicely about the offseason.
05:07Has all the sores be dust settled?
05:09How do you look back on it?
05:11And would you have changed anything about the PR explosion and the story that took over the sport?
05:18You know, it's – I still talk to Brennan, you know, all the time.
05:24Anything that I send to my leaders as far as motivation or, you know, Jacob Rodriguez had a great interview
05:30yesterday.
05:31And I send it to all my leaders.
05:33I send it to him.
05:34You know, he and I stay in contact.
05:36He's a Red Raider, you know, and so – and I think he'll identify with that whenever he goes to
05:43the next level.
05:44The thing that I would have done different, if I would have known that the NFL – not the NFL.
05:50If I would have known the commissioner was going to blackball him as far as the supplemental draft,
05:56then whenever it all came out, I would have said, hey, let's approach this different and let's, you know, go
06:05directly into the supplemental draft and see if it happens that way.
06:08Because, you know, our expectation the whole time was, you know, we kind of had that maybe in our back
06:13pocket if it didn't work out well.
06:14And then you turn around and he's having to sit out a year.
06:18And, man, that's frustrating, you know.
06:20And it's amazing – and I've been criticized for this, for saying this, but it's amazing what other people can
06:28do and they gain forgiveness.
06:31And at 18 years old, he bet on an Indiana team that he didn't play in any of those games.
06:39And, man, he's, you know – he doesn't get to play this year, whether it's in college or whether it's
06:45in the NFL.
06:46And, look, I get it, man.
06:48I totally agree.
06:49You know, you shouldn't be betting on games that you're playing in.
06:53But, gosh dang, man, it's hard to see.
06:55I mean, you guys don't have it.
06:56You don't have FanDuel on your advertisement that I'm on right now.
06:59Yeah, but, my God, I bet there's some kind of gambling platform that will be talked about at some point
07:05on your station.
07:06And, shoot, I send out different pictures and it's up in the corner, you know, that I send out to
07:12my team.
07:12I almost said, like, man, I've got to blur that out.
07:15So, it's crazy what he's had to go through.
07:18That would be the one thing that I would change.
07:20And then, you know, maybe after the injunction comes out, we make one statement and we don't say anything else.
07:27But I don't think that would have changed anything.
07:29I've never seen the entire sports world get behind one single thing the way they did, you know.
07:37But they're okay with getting injunctions for guys that had two sacks in the NFL last week.
07:42And then, maybe that guy can come back to college football.
07:45Nobody's, like, all up in arms for that, you know, that you're on an NFL contract and you get to
07:50come back and play college football.
07:52Hey, we're okay with that, I guess.
07:54Yeah, Coach, I have a Calci read here in about seven minutes.
07:57Yeah.
07:59It's perfect timing.
08:01Do you now have to?
08:02Are you looking at recruiting NFL players with this latest story that's going on in the past 48 hours?
08:08Well, we're always, there's never going to be a time that the way we do things and at Texas Tech,
08:14that we're not going to try to make our roster better at any point.
08:18But it's so, you know, even with a judge saying that they can do this, you don't know if that's
08:25going to happen, you know, because there's still rules to, like, you, guys, man, you're talking about, like, craziness.
08:31Me and you, we can sit here.
08:33Y'all can have me back.
08:34We'd go just on this rant of what's going on in college sports.
08:38But think about the Tennessee kid that's suspended for two games.
08:42And we're talking about guys that have NFL agents that are getting paid by NFL teams.
08:49Or, okay, you can come back, but how long are they going to be suspended?
08:52Yeah.
08:52Because there's no difference, you know, so there's still some rules that we've got to live by.
08:59And the other thing is the ghost portal, that wasn't NCAA, like, they didn't come up with that.
09:07The coaches, the AFCA came up with, hey, if you bring a kid back that wasn't in the portal, your
09:14head coach is suspended for six games.
09:16And so that still should happen.
09:19That's not an NCAA idea.
09:21That was our idea to protect ourselves.
09:24And so I think if a kid comes back that wasn't in the portal that comes on your team, then
09:28you should have the same issue unless the NCAA opens up another portal.
09:33Coach Joey McGuire joining us here on 105.3 The Fan.
09:36Coach, you know, we referenced the Brendan Sorsby stuff this offseason.
09:40It's been about two years now of people really being aware of Cody Campbell and them wanting, ah, here's the
09:461% villain of college football.
09:49And then you've got, obviously, you've talked about recently, I know, having trouble scheduling out of conference opponents and some
09:53of the vitriol you've received from other schools.
09:56You mentioned that you guys have kind of, like, gotten closer this offseason.
09:59Has that been a rallying point, almost being viewed as the heel in college football?
10:03Has that been the rallying point for you guys?
10:04Or has it been something tough to navigate and trying to keep guys' spirits up knowing, hey, there's a lot
10:08of negativity out there?
10:10No, man, our guys, we talk about it all the time, and it's pretty cool that you are in the
10:15fire department.
10:16We're firemen, man.
10:17We run to the fire.
10:19Like, the pressure is a privilege.
10:21It's an opportunity.
10:22If you have pressure on you as a program, then that means you've got the opportunity to do something special.
10:27And so that just brings us closer.
10:29And, man, if y'all are talking to Cody Campbell, man, what an absolute stud.
10:34Like, what he's done for his university, and it's not just him.
10:37You know, his partner, John Sellers, Dusty Womble, Mike Wallace, Gary Peterson, we call them the Fab Five.
10:45Those are the guys that, you know, have really gotten behind, you know, Texas Tech.
10:50And what's crazy is we get criticized so much, but, guys, we didn't have the highest payroll in college football
10:57last year.
10:57There were teams that didn't make the playoffs.
11:00There were teams that didn't have winning records that had higher payrolls than us.
11:04And we're nowhere close to Texas and LSU's payroll this year.
11:09You know, I mean, I would think that both of those schools are in the 50 millions, and we're not
11:15in the 40s.
11:16And so, you know, it's really interesting.
11:19It's always easy to say this is what somebody's doing because they've never done it,
11:24and so they must be doing something, you know, that nobody else is doing in the way they're doing it.
11:30Man, we feel really good that we got a great plan, and, you know, we're going to try to do
11:35what we did last year
11:37and just add on to winning in the playoffs.
11:40Coach, is that narrative that's out there from other schools and other programs that have been upset or whatever else,
11:45have you found that's actually been helpful in this NIL era with some of these students and stuff like that?
11:50They're like, man, people know Texas Tech, though.
11:52I want to go somewhere where people are going to know me and know my team.
11:56Well, number one, before the revenue share, we had a great reputation for making sure we pay what we owe
12:03players.
12:04And, guys, two years ago before the rev share, and it might be happening now,
12:08but there were a lot of schools that promised kids a lot of money to get in the portal,
12:12and those kids never saw the money, ever.
12:14And so the agents that we deal with, we have a good reputation because there was never a time that
12:21we were late.
12:22There was never a time that we didn't pay what we said we were going to pay in that contract.
12:26And so I think that's one thing.
12:29And then another thing that helps us is the negative recruiting.
12:33We have the best facilities in the country, so whenever people say, man, there's nothing out in Lubbock,
12:38guess what there is?
12:39We're a true college town.
12:40Now, we have a fan base that is truly fanatical about their team.
12:46They're going to play out in front of a sold-out crowd every single week whenever we're here at home.
12:51And so whenever people say negative things, these kids and these parents come in,
12:55and they're like, well, we're kind of being lied to because guess what?
12:59This place is pretty cool.
13:00This place is special.
13:02And so for the schools out there, anybody listening, man, keep saying that stuff about tech
13:06because you only make my job easier.
13:08Yeah, the power of the fan base is so strong that lifelong Longhorn fan Peyton Russell,
13:14who booked the interview, our producer, sold out because his new wife was so diehard Texas Tech
13:20that we caught him wearing some Red Raiders gear, and he just sold out the Longhorns after his entire life,
13:25Coach.
13:26So I wanted you to know that.
13:27And we're telling him to get in his coach's ear or really his AD's ear
13:31because he made the statement that he'd keep playing us, and they haven't.
13:34But, man, we would love to play in the University of Texas.
13:37And I am a big Sark fan of what he's done at Texas.
13:41Not many coaches have been able to do and go back through the history of Texas.
13:45And he is a friend.
13:46I mean, we talk and stuff.
13:49But I still want to play him, man.
13:50I'm a Texan, man.
13:51I grew up watching Texas Tech and Texas.
13:53I grew up watching Texas Tech and Texas A&M.
13:56You know, I grew up in the Southwest Conference days.
13:58And so, man, I would love to play Texas.
14:01Coach, give us a season preview.
14:03How much did expectations change with the quarterback change?
14:07And maybe highlight some guys that we need to be really focused on for this upcoming year.
14:12Yeah, you know, our expectations don't change.
14:15We do believe in Will Hammond.
14:18And then we have a really good defense again.
14:21I think that's where everybody's saying there's no way you can replace what we had.
14:26And, you know, one thing that we are doing, we replace them with a lot of depth.
14:30We're a deeper team.
14:32But I think people are going to fall in love with, you know, Austin Romain, Adam Trick, Trey White,
14:37guys that we brought in, some young guys, Peyton Morgan, Oliver Miles that, you know,
14:43have been here that it's now they've grown into, you know, their bodies into college football players.
14:48And then on the offensive side, man, we have three running backs that are really, really special.
14:55And Cam Dickey, Jacoby Williams, and then Quentin Joyner is fully released, ready to go.
15:00And so we're going to be able to run the football.
15:03And then some of the new guys, Petey Johnson.
15:06And I will tell you, a guy that's been here, he was here, left, came back.
15:11It's Micah Hudson.
15:12You know, I think Micah is going to be the best version himself.
15:15And, man, I'm excited to see him play.
15:19Coach, we've always been big fans of you.
15:21We think you're the best interviewer in college football.
15:22You've always been big supporters of us.
15:25You've stayed true to yourself.
15:27We can't root for you more, especially Peyton switching teams.
15:31Thank you for the time today.
15:32Best of luck throughout the year.
15:34Can't wait to have you on again.
15:35And watch the speed limit.
15:37You got it, man.
15:38I'll try to stay out of trouble.
15:40I'll try to stay out of trouble.