Texas Tech Football Notebook: Joey McGuire Discusses NC State

Head coach Joey McGuire, defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyer, and offensive coordinator Zach Kittley. I only had time to non-transcribe McGuire’s comments. Running out of time this morning, as always.

Head Coach Joey McGuire

  • Injury Updates — Getting Back this Week: Chad Townsend, LB Moore, Jordan Brown; Game-Time: Adrian Frye (knee) and Weston Wright (ankle)
  • Don’t beat yourself, least penalized teams in the country and do not throw bottles on the field.
  • Goes back with Dave Doren, he was at Kansas in 2003 and one of the first guys to offer one of my guys, Marcus Hereford, was flown out to Wisconsin, one of the first persons to text when got the job and Ruffin McNeill on the staff and one of the best people int he world. Can’t wait to play them, they play with passion and play fast.
  • Did offer the quarterback while at Waco, he is a pro and will play in the NFL. Two good running backs, 3 and 0. Finish runs. Veteran offensive line, 4 of 5 back.
  • Extremely aggressive defensively, Coach Gibson, odd-stack team, originator of that type of defense, return 10 starters on defense. Standouts are 32, 1, and 10 (plays hybrid safety). Will be fun, very excited and never played in that environment, will be a great road test and are excited to put together a good week and for us to continue to grow as a program.
  • This is a business trip, have a good routine and stick to it, have had compliments from the hotel, is like clockwork and the ops staff. Will go to a movie and enjoy each other on Friday. Put our phones up. Saturday we will be on schedule and will be on Red Raider time and they know not to mess with that. Helps to play in a loud home stadium, will help us, but not offensively it will be loud. We’ll work on that all week, will turn up the volume and be ready to go.
  • Will help being game 2 with the OL and Donovan Smith. Can definitely pay better. Staff meeting to challenge each other, but want to attack our issues, giving up the sacks, the film will be good because some of it was getting beat early, and some of it a new offensive line and Kittley was play-calling and ahead of the sticks. Learned a lot from that game.
  • Between the strength staff and [Harrison] Hanna, when we went through why we won the game, we didn’t cramp and there was cramping but not from the Red Raiders and getting guys ready to play. Just saw Erik Gray, just about body weight, our university and department and the way the kids are taken care of says a lot about what the staff does for our players.
  • Donovan Smith did a great job, in this age for a young man to not be named the starting quarterback, he prepared to play in the game and had the opportunity to play well and prepared to be the starter. Will have to prepare more and will see a lot of pressure. Am proud for him. He and Martinez, Brown, are watching film. They are leaders and getting prepared to play the game.
  • Krishon Merriweather feel good, he’s really tough, a hyper-extension and he said he feels good. He’s a vet and if he doesn’t practice, I don’t think it will hurt him. Feel good he’ll play on Saturday.
  • Have the all-access on ESPN and have heard them talk, they have a chip on their shoulder, was bad on the other team’s part that it got to that, had an opportunity to have a 10-win season and they have a chip on their shoulder and have a lot of leadership and NFL guys. He’s been there and established his culture and have a good staff.
  • I would say that the ACC is a lot more similar to the Big 12, Clemson, Wake Forest, NC State, a lot of similarities and have some wide open offenses and athletes. They are really good, from here on out we’re playing really good football teams. Did not surprise me to see Kansas beat West Virginia, any given week anybody can beat anybody.
  • Devin Leary has a big arm and make throws, can extend the play and has played a lot of snaps. When we were recruiting him, we thought he would be legit and thought we would have better eyes and we did that.
  • We talk all of the time, Malik Dunlap is going back home and going to see a lot of his family, glad he played the way he played on Saturday, will be a lot of fun for him.
  • Happened last year, getting a 15 yard penalty, can’t see the stands, when Myles scores, you see water bottles, at halftime the judges said they almost got hit, I the Texas game when we played in basketball players and one of our former players said that we’re building something is incredible and do not want to take away from that. It’s not a tradition, everybody understands the tortilla deal.
  • Will close the middle of the field and take that away from you and pressure you. They do a great job of disguising and bring pressure from everywhere. He’s one of the godfathers from that defense. Do think with Zach having experience playing that we’ll have a good plan. They saw it every day last year in terms of structure. Will have to play well, tight ends and running backs will have to be aware where the pressure is coming from.
  • Care factor and think that you can probably see it because they are playing hard, but these guys care about each other. There was no frustration on Saturday, Tahj Brooks was hot, but SaRodorick Thompson told Coach Perry to roll with Tahj. We pick each other up and play off of each other. Complimentary football when you play off of each other and they are talking about it and you can hear it. Have guys who want to win and are buying in on how we can win football games.
  • We’re getting there, when you invest reps in certain things, the more you have invested the faster you can play. Don’t want to over complicate the game-plan. Are getting there. Tyree Wilson has surprised me not how hard he plays, but how hard he chases the football. Nehemiah Martinez’s touchdown is Red Raider speed and violence. Krishon getting banged up in the endzone, comes form the opposite side to make the play. The fumble he caused was off of effort, just running that football down. Make sure we are putting in the time, install effort every day.
  • He is a defensive coach and I like defensive guys, he has a really welcoming personality and very calm. Always been good to me, checking on me and coaches with a good heart, in it for the players. I was one of the first ones to hit him up when he got his job.
  • I definitely think that he is going to be able to talk about the environment and give some stuff to the defense, but he’s two years removed and a lot of guys grown up, biggest thing is about the hostile environment and can help with that.
  • Taylor-Demerson and Shad had eye violations last week, but this week graded out well, easier to coach. Muddy is the constant, just how he is, he’ll play on Sunday, Reggie Pearson is starting to come and and practicing so hard. Practice yourself and play yourself into a good football player.
  • I think when it happens, you go back and make sure that personnel we are in a good spot. On the one where they had a penalty, had too many guys stacking their own color, have to spread the net. The specialists struggled, that punt was a line drive, 2 of those, and turned around and boomed another one. Austin, the team and coaches, will all get better. Wolff needs to hit it out of the endzone. Want to fix things off of a win, can be more critical off of a win and will be some applied pressure this week to make sure we’re doing our job.

I’ve got two links: Texas vs. Texas Tech is set for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff on September 24th; and Donovan Smith was named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week.

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