Joey McGuire seems to have a deep appreciation for the way other college football coaches seem to work and operate and that definitely seems true for other college football coaches who are also former high school football coaches.
That’s the case with the head coach of Texas Tech’s first foe, the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions. Alonzo Hampton, who got his coaching career started up at a couple of high schools in Arkansas and has coached his way up across a number of different positions over the years, was the focal point of an answer from McGuire at Monday’s press conference.
Texas Tech’s head coach was asked about the Red Raiders’ upcoming opponents and McGuire very quickly took the opportunity to heap some praise on Hampton and the coaching staff he’s assembled for the Golden Lions.
Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire heaps praise on Arkansas-Pine Bluff head coach Alonzo Hampton
“You know, I love their coaching staff,” McGuire stated. “I listened to the head coach, coach Hampton, I listened to a couple of his press conferences. He’s got great energy.”
I love that. McGuire was asked about his thoughts on Arkansas-Pine Bluff and the dude jumps right in by focusing on his contemporary over on the opposite sideline. I can get on board with seeing more of that more often.
“I think he and I would get along pretty well,” McGuire explained. The other reason we’d get along is because he’s a former high school coach. You guys know I love former high school coaches doing it at this level.”
And there’s a reason to celebrate what Hampton and McGuire have both accomplished to get to this point as head coaches. It’s not easy to climb that sort of ladder. So, even though McGuire doesn’t really know Hampton, he can certainly understand what it’s like to go from being a high school coach to making a leap to coaching in college.