Texas Tech football: What we still need to find out after non-conference play

Is McGuire an astute game manager?

Let’s turn our attention to the Texas Tech sidelines for a moment because there lies a question that has only grown more pressing after the NC State game.  Is Joey McGuire an astute game manager or is he prone to making strategic gaffes like his predecessor was?

Remember, this is McGuire’s first time being the chief decision-maker for a college program.  Though he led a successful high school football program for 15 years prior to jumping to the NCAA ranks, the stakes are much higher and the decisions he must make are much more meaningful now, and after non-conference play, some are questioning his in-game strategy.

All of the concern centers around how McGuire handled the fourth quarter of the NC State loss.  Certainly, there were some questionable decisions on his part last Saturday.

Twice in the fourth quarter, McGuire had Tech go for it on fourth down inside their own territory.  Once it was successful keeping the team’s second (and final) TD drive of the game alive.  But with 8:36 to go in the game and Tech down only two scores, McGuire had the offense go for it on 4th-and-10 from their own 40.

The result of that play was a Donovan Smith interception, a play that would prove to be his final snap of the night.  Conventional wisdom would say for Tech to punt the ball and try to pin NC State deep in that scenario hoping that your defense, which had played very well all night, would get you the ball back in short order.  Instead, McGuire went with the analytics and it failed him.

Then, on the ensuing NC State drive, one that chewed up 6:45 of the clock over the course of nine plays, he sat on his three timeouts refusing to call any because, again, the analytics suggested he shouldn’t.

Analytics are fine and they have their place in the game.  But so too must common sense.  It seemed as if McGuire leaned too heavily on the former and not the latter against NC State and that leaves us all wondering if he’s going to be a die-hard disciple of the analytics moving forward.  If so, we could be in for more head-scratching decisions this year.