Joey McGuire talks defense, Micah Hudson's playing time after ACU scare

There was no doubt that Texas Tech football fans were frustrated with the Red Raiders' 52-51 overtime victory over FCS opponent Abilene Christian. Ater all, a team with Big 12 title aspirations shouldn't be pushed to the brink of disaster against a program from the lower level of the sport.

Thus, Red Raiders across Texas and around the country likely wanted answers from head coach Joey McGuire. After the game, that's what we got but what McGuire said might not have satisfied many in Scarlet and Black.

That's because McGuire was his usual, up-beat self. In fact, he seemed happy with the win.

"Man you know the message I had in the locker room to the players," he said "was you know, No. 1 don't hang your head or anything. We won the game. We're 1-0 you know and that's something that we couldn't do last year when we went to Wyoming.  We're in double overtime and we couldn't find a way to win [that] game and [I] never thought we would be where we were at but that's where we were and we found a way to win the game.

"And then the other thing you know we talk about it all the time whenever we get to film the next day is kind of tell the truth Sunday.   You know we've got a lot of things that we have to fix to get better and we got to do them in a hurry because we're going to play a really good Washington State team but at the end of the day we're 1-0 and the one thing I definitely don't want them to do is hang their head for finding a way to win the game."

Right off the bat, McGuire was asked about the struggles of his secondary. That's only natural after giving up over 500 yards through the air to an FCS team. McGuire said it was a mixture of things that went wrong.

"Honestly," he said, "you could like check off everything that could go wrong in the back end at different times [and it] did. But it was a mixture you know it was a mixture of [ACU] making plays. It was a mixture of I think four of the five guys that we started tonight in the secondary that was their first college start. I know the two corners it was their first college start.

"It really was a mixture of, there was a couple of times that we had good calls and we didn't communicate I thought really early in the game that was the deal and then it was different times we were on our heels. You know they put a lot of pressure on us and the the tough thing is we got no pressure but it was hard to get pressure because that ball was coming out...but how fast you know from the time the ball was snapped to where the quarterback was letting the ball go of you know how fast he was getting it out because we couldn't get any pressure and we really tried everything."

The attention then turned to that almost non-existant pass rush. McGuire said that the problem there was a lack of execution along with inexperience.

"I think a lot of it was a lack of execution," he said. "I think there were different times like when you think that you should be in press and you're playing off the ball…there's no cloudiness you know like pass rush if the ball is coming out that fast. I mean we never made him you know like do anything other than almost go to a second-third read at different times you know.

"And I really think, like early in the game, we were playing pretty decent and then we just really got back on our heels. They got the momentum and they did some really good things you know offensively.  But we've got to find a way, I mean, we're missing you know and he's going to be out for another couple of weeks but we're missing Charles Esters right now.  

"If you go back and if you think about the defense that was Harvey Dyson's first start that was Amiere Washington's first start you know so again there were probably six or seven guys on defense that was for their first college start we'll get better, we will."

The attention then turned to five-star wide receiver Micah Hudson, who played only a handful of snaps and got no balls thrown his way. McGuire explained why the true freshman never touched the football on Saturday night.

"It was kinda one of those deals," he said, "that [the three starting receivers] were playing really really well and then you know you're getting a game like that and you're kind of like ‘Hey make sure you got your old guys in, guys that are not going to, the games not bigger than you know what they've played in’.”

Finally, for some reason, a media member asked McGuire to point out the positives on defense. The head coach was quick to point to the final play of the game as a starting point.

"Well you know at the end of the day I mean they came up and made a play to win the game you know so that's a positive," he said. "And they will grow. I mean those those guys like I walked in the locker room and you know especially the defensive guys kind of had their head down and you know I told [them] I was like ‘Guys don't, first of all, you never ever I don't care what it is, you never, you honor a win period’. I mean at the end of the day it's hard to win.  

"Am I frustrated? I am. I mean I'm extremely frustrated.  You know I did not expect to be in a game like that but I was you know and we were and we found a way to win the game. But the positives were they did not quit at any point.  They kept playing.

"The positives were that I think they're going to come in tomorrow and really hold each other accountable and we're gonna hold [everybody] you know the coaches, everybody accountable to get better. They're willing to get better you know there was never at any point, Jacob [Rodriguez] can tell you of any of those defensive guys I've been on teams and been in games like that to where the defense starts pointing fingers at each other and you know they start getting pissed off at each other and you know there wasn't at no point that those guys were pointing fingers at each other.  It was, 'We're all in it together and we gotta get better'. But there were some good things you know and anytime that you can get a start and grow from it, we will be better next week."