Texas Tech football: Why we should have tapped the breaks on 2023 hype

It is easy for anyone to suggest now, after a 1-3 start, that the offseason hype surrounding the Texas Tech football program was unwarranted.  However, as we look back at where things went so horribly wrong, it is clear that we all overlooked warning signs that could have tempered our expectations heading into 2023.

Remaining realistic in the face of such blatant hype, though, would have taken the type of clarity that almost no fan possesses.  After all, when the hype is being driven by your school’s head coach himself, it is hard not to get swept up in the rush, especially when that hype man is the effervescent Joey McGuire who was coming off of an 8-5 debut season.

Remember, as early as the start of spring practices in March, McGuire was telling the media that his current team would beat the 2022 team by two touchdowns.  That’s an unusually brash statement from a head coach.

Normally, head coaches go into an off-season program trying to keep their team and the fan base level-headed.  That’s the play most expected from McGuire given the surprising success of his first year in Lubbock.

However, McGuire seems to be the type to speak his mind freely.  That appears especially true when he is excited (which, with McGuire, is most of the time that he’s awake).

Also, hyping up the 2023 team was a calculated strategy from the head coach.  Trying to generate buzz and garner attention from those outside of West Texas, McGuire made remarks that were intended to draw attention to what he was trying to build on the South Plains.

Initially, his plan worked.  Tech opened the year ranked in the coaches poll and was a trendy darkhorse pick to not only win the Big 12 but to make a run at the College Football Playoff.  That type of attention would not have happened had McGuire played it straight with his remarks prior to the season.

Also, what was he supposed to say?  Isn’t a coach supposed to have supreme confidence in his team?  If he doesn’t, especially before any games are played, then it is an awful sign of what’s to come as coaches set the tone for their team.

College head coaches, after all, are as much salesmen as anything else.  They have to generate buzz to help ticket sales and bolster program-building efforts such as recruiting and fundraising.  So in a way, by overhyping his team, McGuire was doing exactly what his job called for.

With that said, many remain bitter toward McGuire for the fact that the on-field product has not matched his preseason bravado.  Just weeks after he took shots at Texas at the Red Raider Club Kickoff Luncheon, his team is now one of the biggest disappointments in the nation and fans aren’t going to quickly forgive him for that.

However, had we looked at the state of the program with clear eyes rather than through scarlet and black lenses, we would likely have seen some signs to sober our expectations.  Let’s take a look at some realities that had we been honest about would have told us that the offseason hype we all bathed in was full of bacteria.