Joey McGuire talks Behren Morton, analytics, Micah Hudson and more after loss to WSU

It was an ugly night for the Texas Tech football team on Saturday. Routed 37-16 by Washington State, the Red Raiders put forth a poor effort for the second time in as many games in the 2024 season. Naturally, following the game, head coach Joey McGuire was less than pleased.

"I don't have a lot to say," he said. "Man, I didn't do a good enough job to win the game. And there's a lot of stuff that's going on between the penalties, uh, frustrating. 10 of 80 for penalties, one of five for fourth down, four turnovers. And, you know, that's on me, and I've got to get it fixed. It's very frustrating right now."

When asked if there were any bright spots, McGuire struggled to come up with many. In fact, he quickly went back to talking about his team's mistakes.

"It's kind of a double edged sword," he said. "I mean, I thought that we played better in the secondary, but then we also gave up 212 yards rushing to a quarterback, you know. So it's kind of back and forth with that, but you said it. I mean, we come out. We're trying to be aggressive.

"We take the football and we can't field the kick, you know, and so they get the ball right there. So you lose the possession, like we had two turnovers that were on their side of the field. You know, I know there were two big penalties to where we're on their side of the field, same as last week. You know, we get penalties when we're driving in, and it's frustrating. We're our own worst enemy right now, and you don't have a chance to even win a game whenever you're doing the things that we're doing, playing the way we're playing."

The topic of Tech's fourth-down strategy came up after the Red Raiders went 1-5 on Saturday night. He seemed to defend his decision to go for it instead of punt.

"I mean, like if, if you're sitting there and, and, you know, you if we're not going to be better on fourth down if you punt that ball now, do they have a longer field to drive? We're not playing very well on defense right now either. So they have a longer field to drive.

"I mean, it's just one of those deals in the first, really, the first two years, we have done really good job, I think, defensively off of missed conversions. And right now, through two games, we are not doing a good job after missed conversions. It's frustrating, man, because our philosophy is to be aggressive. And we're an analytics team, and right now the numbers are coming up, you know, short for us.

"I mean, I the big turn in that game again, was the missed first down. They score on the very next play on, I think the running back, they run counter to the nub. He scores. We come out, throw the ball. Josh Kelly fumbles. They get the ball down like the one yard line, and they score. Mean, at that point, it becomes 21-7. And that was big part of the game."

Speaking of analytics, McGuire was asked about his dependence on that aspect of coaching and whether or not this game makes him question that strategy. Surprisingly, he admitted that he is now examining his use of analytics after giving Washington State so many short fields.

"It does 100%. But the first short field was, we can't field a kick. You know, we're not positioning, and so that starts the short field. But you're right. I mean, they the defense gives up however many you said.

"I mean, that's really frustrating. But in the same boat, they had a 43 yard touchdown on quarterback counter. So, I mean, on running back counter. So the ball was, they're still going to score on that because we played it so freaking bad. You know, the quarterback had that long run at the end. If he was at the one, he just would have gone longer, I mean, but you're 100% right.

"Like, that's the first thing whenever I went in there and sit down to question myself is, do we need to really look at when we're going to go for it on fourth down? Because in the first half, seven to three, then it goes 14 to three, then it goes 21 to three, and then it goes 21 to 10. It goes 21 to 27 to 10 going into halftime, you know. And so 14 of those points, you know, come off like really, back-to-back plays."

Former five-star wide receiver Micah Hudson played only sparingly again for the second week in a row. When asked about that McGuire said he does need to get the true freshman on the field more but that it is difficult to decide who to take off of the field in his place.

"People are clamoring for me not to go for it on fourth down. So much right now, you know, people are clamoring for me to do a better job, and I'm clamoring for myself to a better job. We have to do a good job of getting him going. It's just always one of those deals of like, he's got to play more.

"Jordan Brown, I don't see him show on what I got, but he made some big plays for us. We got to get him more on the field. But it's also like, who you take off? You know, got a guy that has nine catches for 95 yards, another guy's got five for 54 four for 71 and then we played with a couple young backs that, you know, had to step up."

Finally, QB Behren Morton had an awful night, perhaps the worst of his career. McGuire was more concerned with Morton's health, though, when asked about his quarterback's performance.

"We had to throw the ball 60 times because we were behind. You know, I'm really anxious, so first time that he has been hit the way he was hit tonight, and I'm really anxious to how he responds tomorrow. You know, he's going to be sore. That's one thing, whenever, at the end, whenever I was talking to him, I was just asking, you know, how he feels, make sure shoulder felt good, and everything he felt good.

"I mean, he's sore because he got hit a lot. Anytime, whenever you get into where they know you've got to throw the football, then they can tee off and, you know, I think we gave up one sack. We got one sack, but he still got hit way too much."