The Assignment

Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (9-1, 6-1)
Bad Guys: UCF Knights (4-5, 1-5)
Where: Jones AT&T Stadium | Lubbock, Texas
When: Saturday, November 15th @ 2:30 pm
TV & Streaming: FOX
Radio: The Varsity Network
The Line: Texas Tech -24
Game Notes: Texas Tech | UCF
Weather Report: Partly Cloudy, High 76, Low 44

I feel that UCF Scott Frost has already lived 3 coaching lives and he’s only 50. Frost started at Stanford and then transferred to Nebraska where he played quarterback and had a 24-2 record. He bounced around a bit as an assistant coach and was the offensive coordinator at Oregon from 2013 to 2015 and then became the head coach at UCF from 2016 to 2017 where he went 19-7, including a 13-0 2017 season. That was a terrific run for the Knights and then Frost left to be the head coach at Nebraska from 2018 to 2022 where he was 16-31. Frost took a year off and then worked for the Los Angeles Rams in 2024 and was hired this year to try it again at UCF.

Frost hired Steve Cooper as his offensive coordinator and was the offensive analyst for Nebraska when he was there with Frost. After Frost was let go, Cooper went to Maine for two years, then Boise State as an offensive analyst for a year and then landing at UCF. I would imagine that Cooper runs a fast-paced offense that is key on explosive running plays.

Your old pal Alex Grinich is the defensive coordinator and as you may recall, he got his start with Mike Leach at Washington State. Grinich spent a year at Ohio State as a co-defensive coordinator and then Lincoln Riley poached him at Oklahoma and then brought him to USC where he was not great as a defensive coordinator. Riley finally let him go and he was the safeties coach at Wisconsin for a year before coming on board at UCF.

The News:

Non-transcript of head coach Joey McGuire.

• Scout Team Players of the Week – Offense: Danilo Guberinich; and Defense: Tanner Allen
• Thank Patrick Mahomes and his wife for being here. Thought the uniforms were incredible, especially in a game day. So proud of Saturday’s environment. Coming back from commercials, the towels look intimidating. So proud of our fans and students.
• I didn’t talk a lot about that I thought was incredibly dominant was Cole Wisniewski, how many times he came down to the box to make plays. Take my hat off to Dr. Fy and Mike Ramirez, he was sick on Friday night, had some medication and stomach bug, had an IV when he woke up.
• Getting to what’s next. Such a huge game and make sure and not let there be a let down. We will have a great practice plan. UCF should have beat Houston, they have good running backs and good defense. Best two edge rushers we’ve faced all year long. It’s a great game, glad it is at home and a 2:30 kick. I miss the tents, but don’t put any up. We are going to make sure we have a hostile environment. It is senior night and great seniors that will play their last game, J-Rod, Behren, Lee Hunter. Can’t wait to get there. We will be ready to go.
• UCF has a lot of speed. We have to do our job. We are undefeated when we take the ball away. We are +11 for turnover margin and get the ball back to the offense. That’s part of turnovers, they become addicting for the defense and creates momentum for the team.
• I still think we have more, it is self-inflicted wounds. Penalties, we are much better but it is showing up and had 2 receivers in motion. Hopefully we can continue to get healthy and stay healthy.
• I think we have a great coaching staff, especially the new guys. We do the same thing with all of the analytics, but we thought we won the offseason by getting Shiel and Mack. Josh Cochran is one of the best run-game coordinators, I feel the same way about C.J. Ah You, you can say that Bailey and Height, and these guys are playing the best they’ve played in their career.
• We practiced yesterday and we are keeping it him a boot, he was in a boot throwing. We are going to have a practice plan. He does the scout period and on 7-on-7, will definitely limit movement all week to get him moving on Friday and he amps up on Friday. He feels good. We are an old team and they understand they have to come in and take care of their bodies. It is soreness. Will Jados and Lee Hunter are dealing with soreness. They were talking about what a weird bye week this is coming up and we still have to focus, but it is coming at a good time.
• It is a mixture, the concentration level has to go up and I haven’t talked to the offensive staff and create competition and never a bad thing to pull someone off the field if the job isn’t getting done. Caleb and Coy have been consistent, but Coy would like to have one and Reggie had one. TC had one hit his hands and some other guys to put pressure on them.
• Lee Hunter, so proud of him, having his best year. I think he’s the most dominant interior defensive lineman in the country. He has stepped up vocally and made such a big difference. I know he’s going to be geeked up a week, he’s a guy that likes to talk throughout the play and it is always fun.
• I said it a couple of weeks ago, going into the Kansas game. Kenny says to not let the Red Raiders get hot. For an 11 o’clock kick, you’re not going to find a better environment. The fans stayed the entire time. Both sides were on their feet with the defense was on the field. We had 2 false starts on BYU that were directly related to our fans. Utah, probably BYU, Kansas State are comparable. If you want to win at a high level you have to win all of your games at home.
• It is really awesome and not just seeing them playing, they love this place and there are some of them that will play in the NFL, some will walk on Saturday that will graduate in December, some we are hoping to get back if we get the 5 for 5 ruling, Reggie and Skyler Gill-Howard. Awesome to see Behren who started as a Red Raider. Davion Carter is graduating from Texas Tech, Kirby challenges all coaches, that they relate their college time to Texas Tech.
• Two sacks were on him and he escaped in pressure. He’ll be the first one to tell you that two sacks were directly on him. Patrick Mahomes would tell you, you know you have to extend plays and you don’t need to do that. You don’t need to put yourself in harms way. It’s a hard habit to break for every quarterback. There’s an NFL quarterback that’s in concussion protocol because of hits he’s causing. Sometimes the play is dead and throw the ball away.
• Just continue to work on it and understand. Some of that drifting, just throw the ball away.
• I think he expects so much from himself and what I was proud of him, the first time we played in front of Pat, we played horrific, I coached one of the worst games and he played bad. The second time we played well. I think he’s so hard on himself because it was such a big game and he takes a lot of responsibility. He sent me a text and I’m sorry that the offense didn’t play better, he takes responsibility for the whole offense, he understands clean operations and we didn’t have clean operations at time on Saturday.
• You ride with Jacob Rodriguez, I give him a hug, and he said coach this wasn’t our goal other than going 1-0. He said you focus on the weight-lifting and preach 1-0 each week. It being senior day will help and some emotions there. I’m going to watch Tuesday night and see who’s ranked ahead or behind us, I’m rooting for the Big 12 and should have multiple Big 12 teams.
• I think they are giving 320 yards defensively, that’s one of the top defenses in the Big 12, they have played some close games except the Baylor game. They have dealt with some quarterback injuries and they have guys that have a lot of speed. they have an opportunity to ruin our season and they’ll be fired up to do that.
• We feel like it is a slam dunk for Hunter Zambrano to be back next year.
• Really athletic and fast, Jayden Nixon. I know we recruited him. They always wait until Wednesday for injuries for the Big 12, UCF has been up front on their injury reports. They have guys banged up. They have a dude #51 that didn’t finish that game. Everybody is banged up.
• You have to prepare for both of them. We have faced running quarterbacks the past few weeks. They had a receiver open to win the game and the Houston DB made a good play. Have to prepare for both of them.
• Cash Cleveland could take a redshirt year, I do think the injunction is going to pass on December 15th, if we don’t go 5 for 5, the only reason it hasn’t happened is because the lawsuits are out there. All of these kids transfer, Skyler Gill-Howard and Reggie Virgil will graduate, but could be back. The roster goes to 105, you really need to be able to play a freshman that is not worried about his years. We have some guys that trust what we are doing.
• We have one DSA, when Quinten Joyner got hurt, Loic, we’ve been fortunate, but as far as health and travel, we are healthy enough for 74 for travel.

The Ride: Latest episode of The Ride from the BYU game.

Education: This week’s education is personnel packages explained in 49 minutes.

Stock Up:

• Johncarlos Miller loves Texas Tech, watch The Ride video and it’s incredibly clear he’s having fun.
• After the game, Behren Morton took responsibility for not playing well and between the game and yesterday, Morton sent a text to McGuire said that Morton apologized for the entire offense.
• I am most looking forward to Utah at Baylor this weekend and TCU at BYU.
• Looking forward to Texas Tech’s off-week, BYU is at Cincinnati and that should be two one-loss teams going into that game. Kansas State will be at Utah and TCU is at Houston.

Stock Down:

• McGuire specifically called out Reggie Virgil by not mentioning him, but I think all of the receivers have to play better and he said that maybe competition is needed. Something is needed.
• I didn’t understand why J’Koby Williams was sent out for corner routes other than they thought that they had a match-up advantage on a slower linebacker, but it would seemingly make more sense that you get him in space, not ask him to make a play on a corner route.
• Mack Leftwich was asked about the red zone issues, guys start pressing to do too much and that they need to run the right route at the right depth and that they can be better in that regard. Was also asked about the drops and said that they need to focus on fundamentals, catching the ball with your eyes and not being worried about what happens until you catch the ball.
• In the grand scheme of things, it’s tough to find a lot of things to complain about, so I’m going to let this go. Generally speaking, things are going pretty well.

Finding My Way: I’m in Tucson this week for work so I’m not moving as quickly as I normally do, I’m an hour behind most of you, so look for things to be published a bit later than normal, but have no fear, all of your normal content will be published.