Over the offseason, one of the biggest stories that college football folks got to chatter on about was the way Joey McGuire and the Texas Tech Red Raiders went all in on recruiting and had a ton of success thanks to the magical combination of NIL and the transfer portal. The Red Raiders had some money to spend and it worked out really well!
And along the way, a few folks got their feelings hurt over the way the Red Raiders were recruiting. Apparently it’s a bad thing in the eyes of some for an underdog program to have anything that resembles success.
Anyways, it’s not something that McGuire himself is fixated on. He’s focused on making sure the Red Raiders play well, perform at a high level, and avoid making senseless mistakes. As a coach should. During a press conference earlier this week, McGuire said as much.
Joey McGuire cares more about Texas Tech doing what it’s supposed to on Saturdays than roster spend numbers
McGuire was asked explicitly about a comment he made regarding other teams spending more on their rosters. The head coach of the Red Raiders noted that there’s another team in Texas that sure seemed proud to talk about how they spent more than the folks in Lubbock.
“I think Texas would tell you they probably did, but you know, I read something the other day, one case LSU had said they spent this much and then the next report came out said they spent this much,” McGuire said.
The whole deal across all of college football is just generally lacking transparency in some really interesting and also frustrating ways.
“I find it hard to believe if certain people are ranking their portal class ahead of ours and they took more people out of the portal, then it would be a less amount of roster and they also paid their quarterback to come back,” McGuire stated.
I don’t blame him for doing that mental math. He’s right to do so.
“And so, it really doesn’t matter, man,” Texas Tech’s head coach said. “I’m happy with the guys we have and never had so much fun in my life and just got to continue it. I mean, it’s all about how we play every Saturday.”
That seems like a healthy mindset for a head coach to have. Control what you can, don’t worry about what you can’t and then have fun all along the way.