The Assignment: BYU vs. Texas Tech – Big 12 Championship

The Assignment

Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (11-1, 8-1)
Bad Guys: BYU Cougars (11-1, 8-1)
Where: AT&T Stadium | Arlington, Texas
When: Saturday, December 6th @ 11:00 am
TV & Streaming: ABC
Radio: The Varsity Network
The Line: Texas Tech -13.5
Game Notes: Texas Tech | BYU
Weather Report: Mostly Sunny, High 58, Low 41

The News:

Non-transcript of head coach Joey McGuire.

Scout Team Players of the Week – Offense: Jackson Hildebrand; and Defense: Dylan Spencer.
Have a lot of respect for Kilani, think it is the 2 best teams. Cowboys Stadium is one of my favorite memories, have 13 or 14 games in that stadium. Good number of guys who have played in that stadium. It’s going to be incredible with the energy. Looking forward to setting a new attendance record, know the Red Raiders will show up, 2 great fanbases.
We were frustrated with drops in the end zone, that next week, the committee said that we weren’t scoring enough in the red zone, and since then we’ve been one of the best. Comes down to execution. We do call the red zone the no-Stone zone and told him that we don’t want to see him inside the 20. We’ve even put that the plan to win. Execution the biggest part.
I think that it is really important for people who understand football as a whole, Josh Pate, I wouldn’t be mad if he was the commissioner of college football. I’ve sent texts to different media people that this teams are left out and shouldn’t be in comparison. Do think it is two of the best teams in the country. The teams that are in the Championships deserve to be in the playoffs.
I think our quarterback is feeling as good as he has all year long, he brings so much energy, we can execute at a different level, and staying away from pre-snap penalties. Defensively, will also come down with BYU, we are +13 and they are +12 in turnover margin, when we take the ball away we feel good.
We did our corrections and walk-through, Behren, Mitch, and David, should have everybody available to played against West Virginia available for BYU.
It’s hard to beat somebody twice. We will be reintroduced to BYU tomorrow. Your team’s “why” it is important to beat them twice. I played Guyer a few times, my son reminds me of year 4 beating Desoto. In 2019 played OU twice. I asked the coaches to really dig into the 1st game and where we can take advantage and where they can take advantage of us.
It’s one of those deals, J’Koby was a different deal, Cameron Dickey doesn’t play as a true freshman, it is difficult to have an impact if you’re not here early. Getting as many guys in for spring football, not counting the transfers, 17 new players. Great opportunity to create mass and learn the system. It has trended that way, from here on out you are going to have a larger percentage of your class be mid-years.
I think the biggest thing is the maturity of your team, when you’ve beaten somebody you think it is going to happen again. Have to be wary about that, Mack Brown sent a text to me and Coach Cochran, he said it’s not about who you are playing, but the standard you are playing at. The one thing we do every Sunday we go over the things we did well and not, I thought we played really hard, but thought we could strain and play harder on Saturday. BYU is a big physical team, really big up front and linebacker and running back position. The strain is going to help.
I was going back and forth with Mike Craven, I said that all of the comments are reactionary, moving the portal to the spring. I don’t want it in the spring. Until we address the calendar. We all should have played August 23rd, that would mean the conference championship is played over Thanksgiving. It’s a neat deal, Mike Leach said it, playoffs have been going on a long time and it was over before Christmas. If the 1st round was played Saturday, we could play the national championship on January 1st and the portal could open on January 2nd. The other thing is that I’m at a place I’m going to be the rest of my life, if we are going to be like the NFL, there’s tampering, maybe the team you are going to is not eligible for the playoffs, or the players can’t follow you. Until there are penalties these things will happen. We have to get football out of the 2nd semester. It should be over by January 1st.
We’re going to lean into the emotion. The bigger the game the more is on the line. I love this time of year. I will never forget Eddie Peach, Arlington Lamar head coach, 2nd winningest coach at one school, I asked him about retiring and he said when I can’t get in the playoffs, I love that when you win the season continues and if not then the season is over.
I think it is really important with Sheridan Wilson, Ben Roberts, Coy Eakin, Mo Horn, Jacob Rodriguez, Benren Morton, Chief Collins, all of those guys have been here, the way they speak, work out, and be in the building, they set the standard and help you enforce that. Those 17 freshman will be taught how we do things here.
I’m excited, I’ll be up here at 6, maybe before, some guys will sign. We will celebrate like crazy. The schedule, we won’t deviate from what we are doing. Will use our indoor a bit more. Work our normal cadence and silent count because it will be loud, there will be a lot of blue in Arlington. Fired up that it’s an 11:00 am kick.
Just finished UCF and BYU, I will work my way back to our game. The coaches are doing the same. It is a benefit for both teams, we know our strength and weaknesses. We feel the same way, we want to try to get in the end zone.
It’s a pretty balanced class. We feel that the offensive line and defensive line are important, the offensive line when recruiting from high school it is the most developmental position. You have to grow those guys. Feel that it is pretty balanced.
In the portal we are constantly looking, we’ve been talking about it, we have to be prepared and not reacting, we have to look. No one has come to me that they are going into the portal, there could be guys on the team that do that. I said last year was going to be a smaller class and guys kept saying yes. We do have a lot of guys coming back on both sides on the ball, have 7 starters on offense and 6 starters on defense. We are losing 2 edges and a defensive tackle, so probably between 7 and 10.

The Ride: Latest episode of The Ride from the West Virginia game.

Education: This week’s education is the best 11 plays from the NFL from last week.

Stock Up:

Last week we saw Utah down Kansas by 10 in Lawrence and I thought Utah really showed that they are a darn good team, but just not quite good enough to be top tier. They’re right there though.
Arizona really put it to what was maybe a big of a depleted Arizona State team to go 9-3 for the year. Quite the turnaround for the Wildcats.
BYU also took care of UCF after getting down early. The Knights could not keep pace and I think the defense really put the clamps down on them by the end of the year.
Houston finished 9-3 for the year, taking down Baylor in Waco, while Kansas State got bowl eligible and is 6-6 for the year. Iowa State and TCU finished 8-4 and they had some good wins and head-scratchers for losses as well.

Stock Down:

Baylor fans hate the idea that they are keeping Dave Aranda for another year after going 5-7. They do have a good recruiting class, but I just don’t know if Aranda is it and I think most Baylor fans feel the same way.
Oklahoma State finished 0-9 in the Big 12. Eric Morris has his work cut out for him.
Colorado didn’t finish much better, finishing 1-8 in Big 12 play.
Kansas was maybe expected to be quite good this year and they fell flat, going 3-6 and 5-7 overall.

Zero Time: I have absolutely zero time for anything despite having Thursday off (I worked Wednesday and Friday, so I haven’t had a ton of time off). Nothing extra today.