The Assignment: Texas Tech vs. West Virginia

The Assignment

Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (10-1, 7-1)
Bad Guys: West Virginia Mountaineers (4-7, 2-6)
Where: Milan Puskar Stadium | Morgantown, West Virginia
When: Saturday, November 29th @ 11:00 am
TV & Streaming: ESPN
Radio: The Varsity Network
The Line: Texas Tech -23.5
Game Notes: Texas Tech | West Virginia
Weather Report: Partly Cloudy, High 41, Low 34

Rich Rodriguez is maybe like the prodigal son, he went away, and now they have killed the fatted calf upon his return to Morgantown. Rodriguez is a native of West Virginia and from 2001 to 2007 he was incredibly successful there, ending his first tenure by winning 11 games twice and 10 games once. He was so good, that this resulted in him taking the Michigan job which was not all that great (15-22) and ended with NCAA violations (I think). A 6-year stint at Arizona and that was fine, but maybe not great (43-35) and then Rodriguez got back to his coaching roots at Jacksonville State. Yep, Jacksonville State, where he went 27-10 over 3 years and finished first in his conference twice.

Rodriguez is largely credited with the spread option offense and the zone read for the quarterback which is pretty great. Rodriguez is the offensive coordinator (I think) because there’s not one listed in the coaches at West Virginia. Travis Trickett is the senior offensive analyst and Rhett Rodriguez, Rich’s son, is the quarterbacks coach.

The defensive coordinator is Zac Alley, who was the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Oklahoma last year and was at Jacksonville State with Rodriguez for a bit. Alley looks like he’s maybe 25-years old. I believe that West Virginia primarily runs a 3-3-5 defense.

The News:

Non-transcript of head coach Joey McGuire.

Scout Team Players of the Week: Offense: Haydon Wigninton; and Defense: Deante Lindsey.
Really tough game and a lot of respect for Coach Rodriguez, know a lot of guys that have worked for and with him. Once they have settled with their freshman quarterback, Fox, beating Houston at Houston and Colorado. He’s going to ive them a spark. A dual threat guy. Bye week was good for us. Had a great week last week, put the pads on yesterday.
Our guys know exactly what’s at stake. We know that’s the case, we plan on making sure we are ready to play and great it is an 11 a.m. kick.
We practiced on Tuesday and Wednesday, run through practices. Everybody looked at how we cold get better. I went on the road on Wednesday night, Jacob Rodriguez, Johncarlos Miller and my daughter all got stuck in Midland and Uber’ed to Dallas. Watched high school guys and sat and watched a lot of football, watched Utah and K-State, Colorado and Arizona State, BYU and Cincinnati.
If we don’t win, we’re not in, one scenario if we don’t win we’re not in the Big 12 Championship. We want to be as healthy as possible. We need to come in guns blazing. If you don’t win on Saturday then you don’t get in the Big 12 Championship.
I go back to John Curry, he’s such a great story. It’s not how well they are playing football. They are great humans. Funny to talk to John, he’s very self-confident, he believes he should be playing over everybody, he would tell you that he should play over Ben. The level he’s played at at a position he’s never played he plays at a high level.
Ben Roberts gets over-shadowed because of the level that Jacob is playing at.
Behren Morton feels great, kept him in a boot all last week. He went through everything and was in the boot. He doesn’t think he needs to be in the boot, but he felt better when he was in it against UCF. He will do all of the pre-practice stuff and all of the scout period and get back in the boot.
My world is constantly thinking about right now, a week from now, and January February to grow the program. I give our players who have been here a lot of credit, Ben, John, Behren, Sheridan. I think when you tell somebody something and you have to prove it every single day, they see the truth of what they sold me and what it has been. I think it is a great place, Lee Hunter said he wished he could be here from the beginning. This team seems like they have been together since high school recruiting.
Cody Campbell, continues to talk about our brand, he is all about Texas Tech, but he is trying to get things right in college athletics. Cody is looking at the big picture, both male and female. Great to have a guy like that. This sport has given me everything and want to protect it as much as possible.
Really excited, texted Logan Bradley, he’s the inside receivers coach and played for me in 2012 and he went to Ole Miss, he’s a great guy and great family. He’s really close to Garrett also. He’s done a good job of coming up through the ranks and was Hugh Freeze’s guy and trying to learn that way and he’s a hard worker. I want to beat his tail on Saturday.
As long as we are playing them, it should be the ones that win their conference. Last year yo ucould argue that wasn’t the case, if Ohio State or Indiana win their conference, they will be undefeated in conference, same with TAMU, if we win the conference with one loss, it has to jump somebody with 2 losses. If you have to go through an extra game you should be rewarded for an extra game.
On game day I wear a Luke Dillingham’s mom’s bracelet, Ivan’s wife gave us this last week, and Corbin’s FCA. I have superstitions on what I do, I have a lucky coin given to me by Mike Hogan, AD at Cedar Hill, carried it in my left pocket since 2003. Had a guy that served 3 tours of duty in Iraq and he retired and he gave me the American flag on his shoulder and I’ve carried that every game this year and is in my pocket against West Virginia.
The good thing is that whatever happens it will be great, if we take care of business then we are in the playoffs and are at home, which would be awesome, but if we have a bye and have an opportunity to be as healthy as possible, I think that I would rather do that. Just trying to get in the mix and when we do, good things will happen.
Us moving up to No. 5, we had a bye, some people say that Oregon’s win is impressive and would they jump us and Ole Miss, we’ll see. Everyone is playing this weekend and a lot of things will be answered this weekend. I am happy where we are at and think that if we continue on this path I think someone should come to Lubbock Texas Tech and play the Red Raiders.
We feel good about where we are at for the recruiting class. It is going to be a lot of fun to get these guys on campus, most guys mid-year. Getting guys texting and saying they want ot get here. Speed and athleticism. We have some big people coming in. I think we are at 17 mid-year enrollees. It has been really important now as the roster size and the limits come in and the majority of your class are going to be mid-year.
I think a few weeks ago all that mattered was winning. The style points early in the season was important, but I always look at none of these guys were debating BYU, BYU has a better strength of schedule than Oregon and Notre Dame. We pick and choose the debate. I think it is absolutely ridiculous that we don’t take into account head-to-head, SMU over BYU last year. I don’t see style points and if I beat you and we have the exact same record, then we should be ahead of you. For us, if we get in and it starts bringing in head-to-head.
Coach Rodriguez is an offensive guru, he is king of tempo and has playmakers and get the ball to the perimeter. They are playing really hard. That means they still believe and has a lot to do with the freshman quarterback. Through him in against BYU and it was fast for him, but it’s slowed down. They are going to be jacked up and that’s a tough place to play. Don’t think I’ve won up there. We are taking this game, like every game, is a playoff game.
Turkey and dressing, my mother-in-law has great dressing. We are going to eat as a team on Thursday at the field club and am excited to hang out with those guys. Cowboys won yesterday. Am old enough to remember the 70’s and 90’s.
We watched that video yesterday, but we played the video of the snow in April and walked out with the o-line and d-line doing their stuff. Said that in week 12 we expect for it to be cold and it will be between 41 and 31 and maybe a bit of show. I am not like some coaches and do tough stuff, just prepare yourself for it. The one thing that some of these guys, Jados is fired up and this is his weather. Reggie Virgil doesn’t like this weather, but he’s played in it. It won’t be 12 degrees like against Iowa State.
Don, great article on J’Koby, that means a lot to him and that means a lot to Andy Evans. It’s a great story, Andy lost his son and J’Koby Williams saved his life.

Education: This week’s education is the best plays from the NFL from last week.

Stock Up:

Shoutout to Arizona who is 8-3 overall and 5-3 in the Big 12. What a turnaround for them and Noah Fifita has had a significantly better year than last year. Something clicked with them.
The big dawgs in the conference all won, including Arizona State beating Colorado like a drum, BYU handling Cincinnati, and Utah making a miraculous comeback against Kansas State.
For the record, Texas Tech and BYU are 7-1 in the Big 12 and Utah and Arizona State are 6-2.
For the upcoming week, Arizona is at Arizona State and i think we should continue to cheer for Arizona State in order to make Texas Tech’s lone loss look a bit better. Utah is at Kansas and how will Utah handle that incredibly difficult road environment (that’s sarcasm). UCF will likely lose a leg or an arm as they are in Provo to face BYU.

Stock Down:

The mental gymnastics that will be required to make sure that only 1 Big 12 team makes the playoff is going to make me crazy.
Houston had multiple opportunities to win the game against TCU, but the Houston kicker missed a couple of opportunities to win or tie the darn thing. Can almost guarantee that Houston will spend on a kicker in the portal.
Kansas has just sort of fallen off the map a bit. The Jayhawks have lost 4 of 5 with the only win coming against Oklahoma State. The losses were to Texas Tech, Kansas State, Arizona, and Iowa State. It’s almost as if you don’t want to put bad mojo out into the universe for fear of the universe turning their back on you.
Baylor is 3-5 in the conference and I cannot explain why that defense is as bad as it is. They’ve also lost 4 of 5 with the only win coming against UCF, but have lost to TCU, Cincinnati, Utah, and Arizona by wide margins.

J’Koby is Amazing: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams on the incredible story of RB J’Koby Williams and his high school head coach, Andy Evans. This time it is not the coach helping the player. I’ll let Don explain:

The facility is where J’Koby Williams goes about his football business every day, applying what he learned back in Beckville. When their phone conversations end these days, Williams never fails to tell the coach, “I love ya, Paw-Paw.”

“There was not a day over the seven-year period I had a relationship with him,” Evans said, “that J’Koby didn’t find me before he left the school or didn’t find me when we were on the field or after practice that he didn’t come and hug me and say, ‘Coach, I love you.’ So I tell you that that kid had a whole lot to do with saving my life, and that’s why he’s so special to me. And coach McGuire would tell you that he just has an ability to light the room when he walks into it.”

Bright Idea: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Nathan Giese on WR Reggie Virgil transformation from a goofy kid to standout receiver for Texas Tech:

One of the first things Reggie Virgil wanted to do after receiving his NIL money to join the Texas Tech football team was give back. It was one of the many lessons his father, George Mabry Jr., instilled in him.

Virgil’s generosity, though, had to be reeled in. Appreciated as his contribution to the Mount Dora Christian Academy football team would be, Megan Ziegelhofer, the MDCA athletic director, also known as Momma Z, talked him down to a more reasonable $5,000 donation.

After the giant check was ordered and written out, Virgil had one other request for the event.

“You think we could get an ice cream truck?” Virgil asked Ziegelhofer. Virgil was giving back to his former head coach, Kolby Tackett, but he also wanted to give something to the current crop of MDCA players during the check presentation.
“He wanted them to have a good time,” Ziegelhofer said. “That was just really, really neat.”