What Joey McGuire had to say after his team's dominant win over UNT

As you might imagine, Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire was rather talkative and jovial Saturday afternoon following his team's 66-21 thumping of North Texas. It was refreshing to see him in a good mood after his team struggled in its first two games of the season.

"I'm really excited," he said.  "Really happy for the players. You know we got a lot of guys in the game they got to play some of our young guys you know. It's fun to see you know Cam Dickey who we've talked about since spring football, Jacoby Williams we started talking about. I thought Micah [Hudson] was going to score right there whenever he, you know I thought he's going to step out of that one.  Tyson Turner got a catch in the game. Holton Hendricks and Jacob Ponton got to play the entire fourth quarter so it was really good to see that but then it was great to have 28 back.

"Taj Brooks came out I mean you could see that he was on a mission early in the game.  He had big runs.  He did a great job in pass [protection] and when that happens you got #2 our quarterback Baron Morton that can really settle in and operate the way he did.

"I thought the first half we were 3 of 30 for the penalties so it was a cut down on that from the first two weeks. We did have two procedure penalties the 1st and the 3rd drive coming out of halftime we had a turnover but you know for the most part especially in the meat of the game to where it was really competitive I thought we really did a good job of cutting the penalties down.

"We got to continue to do that and then it was good to see the defense step up.  We just lost leverage on one play that on their first touchdown but it's good to see them step up.  And man they created three turnovers and we capitalized on them and so that, I thought that was huge.  But it's good to have a game like this to get to 2-1 and get ready for Big 12 play.  So with that, open up for questions.  Oh, man it is good see Will Hammond too. That's another young man.  He could sling it."

With Big 12 play up next, the competition is going to increase in difficulty. McGuire was asked if he thought that what his team showed on Saturday would carry over to next week.

"I think the stuff that we ask our guys to do," he said, "I thought they really responded again especially on the defensive side of the ball. You know [North Texas] had put up some points the last two games. I think the quarterback Morris was either second I think it was second in FBS in passing so I thought our secondary did a good job.  You know, I didn't think Tahj [Brooks] was gonna be out last week. You know whenever we got through playing Abilene Christian the next morning woke up and you know his arm was bothering him and so hopefully we wake up with the team that we finished with and get ready to have a great week. But I'm confident from the standpoint if we continue to take care of the football on the offensive side of the ball, cut our penalties down, and play good defense, if that happens we're going to be a good football team."

Early in the game, Texas Tech used the ground game to establish dominance. McGuire said that was a huge key to the win before talking about two specific plays that stood out to him.

"Yeah it was it was big," he said. "You know I thought there was a couple of plays that really stand out to me.  One play was Jordan Brown's pick up and then you know he cut the field and he really got some momentum going to where we kind of stalled. And then another play that was really big, and this has been our frustration on defense, is holding our leverage.

"AJ McCarty did not make the tackle but he forced the ball back inside instead of letting him have the sideline which last week we let him have the sideline twice, and that ended up where they missed the field goal.  You know because Ben Roberts is running like hell to get to the freaking ball and because AJ forced the ball and maintained his leverage we were able to get them to kick the field goal.  I thought those were really two big plays in the first half to keep the momentum going on our side"

Saturday saw the Red Raiders play their best defense of the season. McGuire addressed what he thought that unit did well against a high-scoring offense.

"I think [defensive coordinator [Tim] DeRuyter and his staff did a good job," he said.  "We've got to you know continue to identify like we do a lot on defense you know and I think it's good. But you got to identify what you do really well and I thought that he called a really good game.

"I thought he put our guys in good positions and then you know one of the biggest things you go back, I rewatched the Washington State game yesterday before we went to the hotel, I'm a glutton for punishment.  You know and my points to the players were, get the football right.  Like I went through from whenever it was 0-0 all the way up until we gave up that touchdown and it was losing leverage, it was we missed a block and then we turned around and watched, and instead of just going to the next level. 

"It’s just get the football right. I thought that the defense did a good job of the football being right today.  And I thought the guys played really fast. They were very confident in the game plan and it was not a you know scale the game plan back or anything like that.  It was things that we have a lot of reps invested in and I thought they executed well.  I felt good last night going to bed.  I always meet with CJ Baskerville and Jacob Rodriguez, Bralyn Lux, Ben Roberts and kind of just ask them how they feel about the game plan.  Is there anything that gives them any kind of [anxiety] to where they're nervous and they felt really good about the game plan last night."

Tech has struggled offensively this year on fourth down. However, the Red Raiders attempted only one fourth-down conversion on Saturday. McGuire was asked about his team being in better situations this week.

"Well, early it was Taj Brooks you know," he said, "and the offensive line.  You know I thought that we were able to run the football and establish the run. The things that we were coming into the game with were hey if it's second and two or second and three you know there's a lot of people that take shots on those plays.  [Bill] Belichick’s philosophy is get the first down on 2nd down you know and I don't know I have to go back and watch the game if any of that happened. 

"We were effective on 3rd down. We were really effective on 3rd down last week.  Where we weren't effective last week, we weren’t effective on 4th down, one of five, and one of three in the critical situations you know.  I thought we had a good handle on what we were going to do.  Don't want to go totally into it because we didn't have to go totally into it with the kind of philosophy but I think we did have a good plan of 'Hey we're going to go for it here. We're going to be more aggressive here. We're going to try to get the first down here.' Just where we are we were on the field versus some of the stuff that we had done in the past."

One story from Saturday was the first extended action for both of Tech's backup quarterbacks. McGuire had good things to say about each.

"We turned the ball over there but it's frustrating for Cameran [Brown] because up to that point we hadn't had a procedure penalty and then on his first drive he, if you don't get the procedures or penalty he gets the first down so we're continuing the drive.  But we came up short so we had to punt.  Then we throw the interception and then we come back out and we have a good play called and we get a procedure penalty so he was playing behind the sticks the whole time.  I thought he did some good things. I mean he plays to his strengths. He ran the ball well.

"And then I thought Will [Hammond] did a really good job. He was 5-7 for 70 yards.  You know Will does a really good job operating the offense.  We were coming you know going into half once we got to where we were at and we wanted to get both of those guys in the game and get those guys going and if there's ever a situation where they both kind of have their feet wet in the game.  But he was fired up all the, Will Hammond, man he's such a neat kid.  He just, man he just loves football and he just has such great joy and he's a really cool guy to talk to.  He's very serious about life he knows what he wants to do he's going to be a successful human but man he has such joy out on the football field and it’s fun to watch."

McGuire then fielded another question about his defense. He went on to discuss how that unit has overcome the loss of some key players this year.

"Yeah it's big man," he said. "You know you don't think about these things because you always got to go next man up but you know we come into the season and Joseph Adedire probably played as much football as anybody on our defense.  And you know he was out so we lose him and then Harvey Dyson starts the first game and he's been dealing with a foot issue.  

"We thought we were going to get him back today. I'm really hoping that we get him back next week you know.  So that that takes some pressure off because you know you're out there and Isaac Smith has played a lot of football but he hadn't played football in a year. Now he's game three he's really starting to pick it up but his backup is Anzel [Adore].  I mean he's a red shirt freshman he's getting his feet wet.  So I think the defense is going to continue to grow.  I think it's our responsibility coaching-wise to put them in good situations and just continuing to own the things we do well.  I do think that we've got a defense that can really create some turnovers."

In this game, Tech had to work with a reshuffled offenisve line. McGuire said he was pleased with how that position group played.

"Yeah I thought they did a good job you know," he said.  "We were hoping to have Sterling [Porcher].  You know we should have him, he was feeling much better today, we should have him.  But I thought Dalton Merryman did some really good things.  He's athletic. 

"That unit will continue I think to get better and better because you know you kind of got now your five especially with you know Vinny [Sciury] being out for the year.  You’ll add Sterling back in there and be able to mix some things around.  But I thought they did a good job.  I think the one thing that, a guy that will continue to get better is Sheridan Wilson.  He's doing a really good job but man he's got such a huge care factor and he wants to be sometimes too perfect.  I thought he did a good job today of, especially you know, in the first half whenever it was a really competitive game and early in the game that you know he wasn't trying to be perfect.  He's making his calls getting the ball snapped and we'll keep getting better with that unit."

After last week's loss, Tech fans were critical of the number of wide receiver screen passes that Texas Tech ran on offense. That play wasn not utilized as often against UNT and McGuire was asked why.

"That's a really good question," he said, "because it's been really good man, so much better.  I mean we did have one I think with [Caleb Douglas] that had a really good play on their sideline.  We just had more, we felt that the way they attacked with their odd stack they were going to give us more of the RPOs, if they were really coming down to where we were going to be able to throw it behind them.  You know we had one that we missed that would have been a big play it was to their sideline.  We handed the ball off.  We still should have it blocked up.  That's where it would have been a better play but we had Coy on a skinny.  We could have pulled that ball.  That would have been a big play but they were giving us more RPO stuff and so you know we felt like that was a good way to attack them."

Coming off of a poor showing at Washington State, Tech QB Behren Morton was fantastic against UNT. McGuire pointed to the return of Tahj Brooks as a reason why.

"Yeah, man I'm telling y'all," he said, "you know at some point we'll have to play without him, I hope none this year, but you know I think Tahj Brooks’ presence just makes such a huge difference.  Because you cannot, you can't come out and say hey we're going to take the pass away we're going to play two high we're going to because we're going to run it down your throat with that guy. 

"And the other thing you know, throughout the week of talking to Behren of you know like hey you know, I felt like he pressed last week.  It felt like he came out and was like you know ‘I'm going to get, I have to go win this game’ and some of that was us. I mean you go back and we could run the ball more even with the two young guys you know.  And so I think…[offensive coordinator Zach] Kittley had a really good game plan for him.  I think he felt really good about it and so he played really well.  I mean like you said I think he was 15-19, 273 yards 4 touchdowns. We only had one sack.  It's good stuff."

Finally, McGuire was asked if he noticed that the crowd cheered when Micah Hudson entered the game. McGuire said that he did and he went on to discuss what he likes about the freshman receiver.

"I've been through that before," he said, "it's always one of those deals, I was fired up for Micah and I was fired up for that catch.  I was kind of laughing, I mean it's been I think it was [2018] and [2019], probably [2019] to where we had some of that at the old place at the quarterback position you know.

"And it's, I was proud, man.  You know it was funny, I was walking out with Micah and this is just kind of the person he is. I mean I know you are going to get to because these young guys are such a big part of our team, but, and we have some really really good kids on this team, and so I was messing with Micah and I said ‘Man I thought that you were going to step out of that and score’.  

"And he turns he goes, ‘Me too coach.  But at least J’Koby [Williams] got in the end zone and so did Cam [Dickey]’.  Like that's his mindset.  Like it's all of their mindsets.  We have, they are great teammates.  They are great football players.  They are going to be great Red Raiders but they are great teammates you know and we'll just keep building on those young guys and getting them in and getting them involved. And man we got some weapons.  It's exciting."