I don’t have a ton of time. Believe it or not, my wife is out of town until Wednesday so I’m in charge of making sure the boys are dressed appropriately, picked up from school, taken to their respective practices, have their homework done, are fed, and are relatively clean. Everything will be fine / laughs nervously / .
Yesterday was a big coaching news day. Let’s start with Jeff Traylor signing a long-term deal with UTSA, which means that he’s likely not a candidate at Texas Tech OR at TCU.
What? TCU? Yes, the athletic director asked Gary Patterson to coach out the rest of the year and then be reassigned in a different capacity next year. Gary basically said, that ain’t gonna play, I’m out. The rest of the year, Jerry Kill will be the interim coach.
Now, there are two Texas teams competing for a head coach and TCU wanted to get out in front of it. Word spread quickly on Twitter that TCU wanted to get out in front of Texas Tech and that Sonny Dykes is head of the list. I don’t know if I’m sold on that, but that’s out there. I’d also add that you could be competing with Baylor soon too as both USC and LSU are said to have Aranda as a candidate.
I’m not 100% sold that Sonny Dykes wants the Texas Tech job. I don’t think all of that smoke about his concern is just smoke, there’s usually a bit of truth to some rumors (just like there was truth to the idea that Traylor would get paid by UTSA).
For me, I think that you sort of are in a spot where you take a proven commodity like Jeff Traylor or Sonny Dykes (which obviously won’t happen with Traylor and don’t think it is likely to happen with Dykes) or take a complete unknown like Jeff McGuire at Baylor and hope he hits it out of the park with his coordinator and assistant hires. It would be a complete unknown, but you’d be hiring a tireless recruiter who has tentacles through the entire state of Texas and you might earn a bit of loyalty from hiring McGuire and taking a chance on him.
Coach McGuire is a Authentic Players Coach, Texas Tech!👆🏾 https://t.co/c5z0cb1ic2
— Byron Hanspard, Sr. (@HanspardSr) October 31, 2021
Jeff Traylor’s last three “likes”. The answer is right in front of our face. #HireMcGuire pic.twitter.com/eNG6j7Qch8
— Kyle Jacobson #HireMcGuire (@_KyleJacobson) November 1, 2021
There’s also been the rumor that the committee will meet with Mike Leach today for whatever that is worth. This sort of move would also hasten my blogging retirement. I’m sort of done with Leach and the fact that he’s shopping in year two at Mississippi State after a pretty nice win on Saturday means he’d do the same thing here at Texas Tech, which some of you may be absolutely fine with but I’ve done that and I’d be good just moving down the road.
I’m all in on McGuire. It is a hire that you could make right now and he could start the process immediately. Don’t get me wrong, you shouldn’t hire someone because they can start now, but I do think he’d be a heck of a head coach and being able to hire him now is an advantage that other candidates don’t give you.
I know there’s not a ton of content here on this post, but I basically wanted a post to: 1) round up some of the coaching news, even if it wasn’t Texas Tech related; and 2) create a bit of an open thread for the day. Enjoy your day!