Joey McGuire proud of his team after wild victory in Stillwater

Saturday evening, Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire met with the media to discuss his team's chaotic shootout win over Oklahoma State on the road. Naturally, he said he was proud of the way hist team played in the 56-48 win.

"I'm really proud of the team," he said. "You know, it was one of those back-and-forth games that was probably as crazy of plays in that game as you're going to see all year long, all in one game.

"You know, I thought some guys stepped up at the right time. Special teams made some big plays. You know, we were we were really in a good spot. When they got the high snap, we were bringing pressure. So we had [Chapman Lewis] coming. That helped a lot."

McGuire then talked about his star running back, Tahj Brooks. He even went so far as to lobby for Brooks to be a Doak Walker Award finalist.

"And then last man, you know, Taj Brooks," he said. "I mean, what can you say about that guy? 198 yards tonight, total offense, and four touchdowns. I know he's a semi-finalist, but, and I know this is a one-year deal, and what he's done in one year is absolutely incredible, but you know, the way I look at it, there's no way he shouldn't be a finalist for the Doak Walker. He is the all-time leading rusher for Texas Tech. He passed up to two Walker winners to do that. Tonight he moved into fourth all-time in the Big 12, passing up Brad Smith, I believe.

"And I just, I just hope the people that are voting for this award make sure that he's there because he deserves it. He is just a total back in everything he does. And then everybody knows that are Red Raiders in here that cover the Red Raiders, he's as good of a person as there is on this planet, you know, and I'm lucky to coach him. I'm really proud of him. And man, that last, that last play just before half was just amazing. Behren dropped it out of the sky, and again, Taj comes up with a big play, and that was big for us."

Next, McGuire spoke about the opportunities that still lie ahead of his team this year.

"You look back on this year," he said, "there's going to be some things that we missed out on, but there are also going to be the things that we're pushing this program ahead. One of them is just our first winning record that we've had on the road since I've been at Texas Tech. I'm really proud of the guys for doing that.

"And then again, we've got such a huge game next week...at home against West Virginia to try to go 1-0, and then get to eight wins. So it's going to be a good week for us. And I told the guys at the end, it's really important we practice well for the seniors, but we have not played well at home the last two games for our fans. And our fans deserve our best next Saturday, and we're going to work our butt off all week long to make sure we give it to them with that open questions."

While this game was all about offensive fireworks from both teams, one Red Raider defender stood out. McGuire talked about what linebacker Jacob Rodriguez means to this team while paying him a tremendous compliment.

"Jacob Rodriguez, and like he was just in the midst of every defensive play," he said. "Jacob is, he's to the defense. You know, he's what Taj is to the offense when, when Jacob plays, well, gives us a big opportunity. Man, he made that interception at the end of the game. You know, he was in the midst, is he the one that recovered the fumble in the end zone for the touchdown? So that's awesome, man.

"I mean, the thing that I love about that guy is he, again, he's like Taj. I mean, we have great humans in this program that I love being around, and Jacob's one of those guys. He has a high care factor. It means a lot for him to be a Red Raider. It means he really cares about this team, and so good for him."

Of course, the Tech defense struggled in Stillwater as it has for most of the season. McGurie talked about the challenges that side of the ball faced.

"We were on our heels a lot," he said, "for a couple different reasons. You know, just guys in and out of the lineup again, losing the two defensive tackles. And so in two of their plays, you know, they get a long run. We have an unblocked player. We don't make the tackle. We have another guy that can't get him out of bounds, you know, stuff like that. And then they had a really good trick play. We didn't see the guy leak out. And so whenever they got to the 14, they kind of had our number off of that, and you could see it, man.

"I mean, I felt like our defense for a lot of the game played on their heels and we never could get settled. So whenever that happened, we recognized it was going to be a highest-scoring game, and just found a way to win the game."

McGuire then discussed the huge 3rd-and-11 conversion that QB Behren Morton picked up with his legs late in the game. As he did, he told a funny story about Morton.

"So, you know, it was, it was quarterback draw," he said. "You know, I'm anxious to see how fast he ran. It's probably not real fast. The running joke with Behren right now is he scored a touchdown running 13 miles per hour, and he celebrated with Coy [Eakin] on a touchdown run at 20 miles per hour. So all week we really I told him, I said, 'There's going to be chances'.

"We actually talked about this on Tuesday, I think, and I said, Hey, there's going to be chances to where you're going to be able to run the football just because of the way they're dropping, and that's exactly what we did not want to throw the ball right there, have a chance for it to be incomplete and not run the clock. So if we didn't get the first down, at least had a timeout. We had to run the clock down as far as we could. Run it down. Punted to him with as little time as they could."