The Texas Tech football team handled Sam Houston 49-14 Saturday in Lubbock. For those who didn't watch the game, the score might indicate an easy day for head coach Joey McGuire and his team. However, the rest of us know that the first half was full of struggles.
Texas Tech led just 21-14 at the break thanks to three interceptions, numerous penalties, and even more mental mistakes. However, in the second half, the Red Raiders looked like the No. 11 team in the nation, outscoring the visitors 28-0. So what did McGuire say during the intermission that turned his team around? He gave some insight in his postgame press conference.
"In games, I'm not a big rip-their-tails," he said, "but I came in pretty fired up at halftime. I hadn't said it to them going into a game until this week, throughout the week, of self-inflicted wounds, and we had them. So I was pretty pissed off.
"So I really kinda got into them. But then, at the end, we've been talking about the power of now, being where you're at and focusing on that, and that was right at the beginning of [halftime], and I kinda calmed down a little bit, said, 'Everybody take a deep breath. Listen to your coaches and what we're about to adjust and let that half go. Come out and play this half and we'll fix that half in film tomorrow.'"
McGuire is known for his fiery personality, and if there was ever a first half that warranted him laying into his team, it was the one the Red Raiders put forth on Saturday. The offense was especially poor in the first two quarters of play, scoring only seven points on eight drives.
Of course, Hammond's three interceptions, which came over the span of four plays, were the low point of the half. They helped let Sam Houston cut a 21-0 Tech lead to just seven points after the second quarter.
However, McGuire didn't point the finger at any individual other than himself. In fact, he said that Texas Tech's slow starts this season have been his fault.
"Obviously, they're missing the things I'm trying to get to them," he said. "Like, I just believe there's a way to play football, and two personal fouls is not how you play football. Pre-snap penalties kill my soul...There's just little things, how you play clean football, and in the first half of football games, we have yet to play a clean football game.
"So I blame myself, because I'm obviously not getting it across to the coaches and players, exactly what we have to do."
McGuire then went on to say that his team was sloppy in the first half and that sloppy football lands at the feet of the head coach. That's going to make for a potentially unpleasant Sunday for his team.
"I think the biggest thing is, really, tomorrow we're going to call this stuff out," he said. "We're going to show it on film, and it's going to be a very uncomfortable session with the coaches and the players and myself. That's the first thing."
This was the final tuneup for the Red Raiders before eight Big 12 games in a row to close out the regular season. The time has come for Tech to put together a complete game and is sounds as if McGuire is putting the onus on himself to make that happen.
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