Texas Tech football: Could UT game follow a familiar winning script this year?
Just like Joey McGuire, Kliff Kingsbury led Texas Tech with an aggressive mindset
Comparing Joey McGuire and Kliff Kingsbury when it comes to personalities is laughable. The current head coach is effervescent and a man of the people while Kingsbury was an enigma who became almost a mythical figure, Lubbock’s version of Bigfoot, only rumored to be seen in public in brief flashes.
On the other hand, when it comes to the way they view coaching the game, there are some similarities. Mostly, each coach believes in being aggressive and taking chances.
That paid off for Kingsbury in 2015 in Austin. Though he only went for it once on 4th down (an attempt that failed) he asked his sophomore QB to throw the ball 39 times in the rain.
What’s more, his trick play was a huge gamble, one that could have backfired on him and turned the tide in Texas’ favor. Coming just one play after taking over on downs at the UT 40, Kingsbury could have played it safe and tried to nurse home a 41-38 win by milking the remaining 2:51 off the clock. He went for the kill though.
On the other hand, it was a rather safe play in that it was a running play so the clock kept moving. It also was a first-down play so it didn’t have to work to keep the drive alive.
Still, plenty can go wrong on any trick play. Imagine if Mahomes and Grant had fumbled the unusual exchange of the football and Texas would have recovered. People around West Texas and the nation would have skewered the head coach for such a call. Still, Kingsbury always said that “fortune favors the bold” and early in his career, he coached that way right or wrong.
That is also how McGuire coaches. He’s one of the nation’s most aggressive coaches as Tech has gone for it 34 times on 4th down, second most in the conference to Baylor.
It will be surprising if McGuire isn’t ultra-aggressive this week. He knows his team is a massive underdog and he knows the significance of this game given the impending end of the series.
Last year, he was 6-8 on 4th down against Texas in Lubbock, and that led to an OT win. Don’t expect any difference this year because Tech has no reason to play it safe, and even if it did, McGuire isn’t wired that way.