Just about every Texas Tech football fan likes head coach Joey McGuire. Thanks to his infectious personality, just about everyone, regardless of their college football affiliation, who meets McGuire comes away impressed.
It is a welcome change from the two and a half years of the Matt Wells era that preceded McGuire's arrival. During that time, Texas Tech was led by a man who could essentially do nothing right, including finding a way to ingratiate himself with the Red Raider populace.
Still, there comes a time when every coach, regardless of how liked he may be, must stand on results. For McGuire, that time has arrived.
In 2025, the Texas Tech football team must finally break through in a big way. The program's boosters and the university's administration have done everything possible to give McGuire the best roster that any Red Raider head coach has ever enjoyed. That includes the 2008 team that Mike Leach took to No. 2 in the national polls late in the regular season.
Thanks to an unprecedented spending spree since the end of last season, Texas Tech now has the No. 1 transfer class in the nation. No program in America has added more ready-to-contribute talent than the Red Raiders have.
Literally, every position group on the roster (with one exception) has been upgraded via the portal. As for the one position that wasn't enhanced, it is the middle linebacker room where Tech brings back All-Big 12 performer Jacob Rodriguez and 2023 Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year, Ben Roberts.
Those defenders are part of a solid core of returning talent at key positions. Most notably, starting quarterback Behren Morton, will be back for his senior season. If he is finally healthy after offseason shoulder surgery, he could provide the program with the best quarterback play Tech has seen since the Pat Mahomes era.
Thus, the excuses that have defined every season of McGuire's Texas Tech tenure should be gone.
In 2022, he had the built-in excuse of being a first-time college head coach. What's more, programs of Texas Tech's historical pedigree don't demand championships in a coach's first season on the job.
Then, in 2023, McGuire lost starting quarterback Tyler Shough for the duration of the season in week four due to a broken leg. What's more, in that same game, Morton, who would fill Shough's shoes for the rest of the season, sprained his throwing shoulder, causing him to be extremely limited for the rest of the season.
Last season, a number of key departures on the defensive side of the ball forced young players, especially in the secondary, to play meaningful minutes before they were truly ready. As a result, McGuire's team had one of the worst defenses in the nation.
In all, McGuire has never won more than eight games in a season as a college head coach. He has never taken his team to a top-flight bowl nor coached in a conference championship game.
While the job he's done in Lubbock has been respectable, as he's led Tech to an average of 7.6 wins in his three years in Lubbock, which is the best three-year stretch the program has enjoyed since the Mike Leach era, that modest win total is no longer acceptable.
This offseason, Tech has spent big to bring in two new high-profile coordinators and a transfer class that is the envy of every program in the country. Also, the program now resides in the shiny new Womble Football Center, which, along with the new south endzone building at Jones AT&T Stadium, gives McGuire's program the most state-of-the-art facility in the nation to recruit to.
In fairness, McGuire has had a huge hand in bringing about the current influx of revenue, given his ability to connect with influential donors and energize the fan base. Thus, it isn't as if he shouldn't deserve some credit for the program's recent national upswing.
Still, the fact remains that he must figure out a way to make this offseason momentum translate into a Big 12 Championship, something that this program has never achieved. McGuire has been blessed with everything he could have asked for. No coach in Tech history has enjoyed the type of riches that McGuire now does. However, to whom much is given, much is required, and in 2025, McGuire can't produce mediocre results anymore.