Just got back to my apartment after a solid day at The Jones. Will have several player stories in the coming days, but for now let’s focus on the head coach’s press conference. Here is everything
Joey McGuire offered to the media ahead of his third fall camp as the Red Raider coach and 30th of his coaching career.
Opening statement:
“The guys are eating right now, we have our first meeting at 2:00 and then we’ll meet all day today on different things. Just kind of camp do’s and don’ts and then we practice in the morning, Starting year no. 30, I don’t know if I’ve ever been more excited, for a lot of reasons. I feel really good about this team, I’m excited about this team. It’s very talented. We’ve got some great people, we just got some great humans on this team that are really good stories. Then you turn around and we’re fixing to open up the south endzone, we moved into the south endzone about a week ago, it is absolutely incredible. We had the Women Behind The Brand last night, we had 780 ladies that went through our women’s clinic and they were blown away whenever they got to see the field level locker room and the field level club and recruiting suite, everything like that. I don’t know if there’s ever been a better time to be a Red Raider. I’m just blessed, so lucky that I get to lead this team, can’t wait to get on the grass tomorrow. I remember whenever I was 24 years old, it was my first time going out in Crowley, Texas and coaching and how excited and nervous I was. I don’t even think it comes close to tomorrow whenever I get to get out and coach this team.”
There’s a lot of talk about the offensive line, what’s your timeline on getting that group solidified, and particularly getting the center and right guard spots figured out?
“That’s a really good question because it’s probably going to be all camp. One, it’s gonna sound crazy for a 315 pound guy, he may even be 318, but Sterling Porcher ran 20 miles per hour on the GPS the other day during our team run and kinda tweaked his hamstring. He’s gonna do some individual and stuff like that, but we’re gonna slow him down. I don’t really want to mess with our left guard, center and right tackle position, so we’re gonna let Caleb (Rogers) play some left tackle which he’s done before. Sterling will be back within the next week. That allows Davion Carter, who’s played a lot of right guard to play right guard. When we met yesterday, the biggest thing we got to do and we’re really lucky because we have the depth, is Davion’s gotta play enough center. We’ve got a really good competition going on there, and then Caleb’s gotta play enough right guard to where he’s getting reps he needs to. The good thing is you have a month. We’re fixing to go from July 31 hitting each other to August 31 hitting somebody else, so you got a month to kind of get it all sorted out. I definitely would like to have it to where we could have two weeks with those guys together.”
How did “The Program” that the players did a week ago come about, and what kind of benefit did you feel like they got from that?
“That’s year three that we’ve done that, they have four different years that you can do so we’re on year three. It’s been something different every year. They do such a good job, the program the guys that come in have all been in military action. I mean, heavy action, you got special forces that are in that room and they do a good job of talking through some of your team leaders, just talking through team chemistry. It stresses the whole team. We had different guys, Bralyn Lux came up and led one group, Josh Kelly came up and led a different group, you had your boat leaders. It allows some guys that maybe are leaders but they’re not seen maybe as a total team leader, it puts them in situations to where they have to be more vocal. And then anytime you’re in the mud, in the water and uncomfortable and it’s cold and you just don’t feel good, sands everywhere, it just builds camaraderie that everybody’s doing the same thing and it’s difficult and it’s different.”
What are some of the top position battles you’re looking at in fall camp?
“Man, I think the No. 2 running back, the two Cam’s are going at each other. You got Cam Valdez, he’s got more experience, but Cam Dickey had a great spring. On the tight end battle, we feel like we have three NFL tight ends, where do they fit in? Like Jalin Conyers is fully back, he’s been back for a month, where all does he fit? I mean we’ve talked about Wildcat quarterback, we’ve talked about fullback, we’ve talked about tight end, we’ve talked about outside receiver. Finding ways to get him in a lot of different spots. Now you add Micah Hudson back into the mix, he’s fully back, who does he go after? Because he’s gonna go after somebody and so what does that look like? And then on the defensive side of the ball, I think the secondary. We have CJ Baskerville, who’s played a lot of football that we feel really good about at boundary safety. Bralyn Lux, I think he’s one of the top corners in college football, he’s played a lot of football. So now you’ve got some young guys. Free safety, strong safety, AJ McCarty’s back now, he’s eligible to play, so you add him, a guy that has started Big 12 games. I think that the secondary, like one of the corners and the two safety spots, there’s a lot of competition out there of who’s gonna be starters. But defensively, it's good to have as many guys we have to play. I mean, you probably heard me say this, but our first year Boog (Jaylon Hutchings) and Tony (Bradford) played 700-plus snaps. I think it was like 760 and 767. That was 560 more snaps than anybody else in the country, and the next guy that was close to him played in the national championship game. So they got to play two more games than we did. And so to have seven defensive tackles, there's a lot of competition in there. I mean, that's it hasn’t been like this to where we've been able to come into fall camp, feel good about our starters, but know our starters team can’t feel good. Like there's a lot of competition on this team.”
What kind of impact do you anticipate the facility upgrades having on recruiting?
“I think it's gonna be incredible. I mean, whenever our fans come out here and game one, and see the south endzone, they're gonna be blown away. But whenever our recruits go through and walk through and then whenever you're able to add the walkthrough and being in the Womble Football Center, it's even going to go up a notch. I think we have the best facilities in the country. It will compete with anybody and it's definitely the most unique facility in the country. When you're talking about that you're bringing the football stadium, the indoor and the football facility all together to where you walk into one, go to everyone else and without going outside, you're going to five different fields, you know, without having to, you know, bus to a field or anything like that. So it's a very unique facility.”
On AJ McCarty, what are his plans for this fall, he was playing STAR competing with Brenden Jordan, mentioned that he can play some free safety as well, what’s the plan for him, what’s the competition at STAR like?
“Yeah, we're gonna let those two guys fight it out. The battle really is who is, I feel like Chapman Lewis is our starting free safety. So the battle was like, who's gonna be the number two? Jordan Sanford was that guy and got a lot of reps in the spring. But we want Brenden Jordan and AJ to fight it out. They'll both play every single week. We feel good about both of them. They both had really good springs and summers. But at that free safety position, feel good about Chappy. We even talked today if Macho Stevenson has a really good camp does he pushed to be that fourth corner? Now can we move Devynn Cromwell to be a free safety, which he's played safety before? I think the biggest competition right now on this team is like, what does the secondary look like past the starters, like who's gonna play what? Javeon Wilcox, he had a great spring and we feel good about him playing boundary safety. Does he stay there and and backup CJ, you know, and so there's a lot of competition with our twos there too, and our threes to see who's going to be able to play on Saturdays.”
A lot of the roster is your guys that you and the recruiting staff has brought in, how do you feel and where do you feel this roster is compared to the ideal roster that you’d like to have at Texas Tech to win the Big 12 championship?
“We feel really good, it's funny, I counted up the other day and probably missed a couple of guys but you're probably talking about 10 or less guys that were here, whenever I first got here. I mean y'all probably can look at it like Caleb, Behren (Morton), Tahj. You start going like that, Mason Tharp, might be a little bit over 10. But, you know, this is, whether it's been through the transfer portal or it’s been through high school recruiting, this is our roster, you know, and we're excited. Whenever you're looking at some areas, we had to add a junior college offensive lineman and three transfer portals because the guys that we recruited are still, you know, like Sheridan Wilson is finally in his third year. Most offensive lineman that's when they really start figuring it out in college and they're mature enough to play at a really high level. So our o-line guys are still babies but like Dylan Shaw, he's a number two left guard. I feel good about him. Danny Sill is going to play guard and tackle because we do have some other tackle bodies and so I think you know, we feel good about that. But overall I feel good about this team, you know. The key and I mean, if y'all don't know this, I know everybody in this room knows this. The key is keeping the quarterback healthy, like bottom line. You know if you if you think through that, and ifs and buts you know all that stuff. That if you think through I mean, we probably win to more games and we have a healthy Behren Morton last year, you know, we probably win two, at least one more game the first year we have, quarterbacks that are healthy throughout the whole season. So the key is keeping the quarterback healthy. We feel great about the roster. We've done a lot of stuff with Behren, he feels great. He's ready to roll tomorrow. But he's also there's a mindset there are some things that we're going to really talked about and we're going to work through camp to put him in some situations to where he has to throw the ball away. Behren, man, he takes hits that necessarily sometimes you don't have to take in to extend the play and just get the ball to check down that’s Tahj Brooks. Anytime Tahj Brooks has a ball in his hand, that's a good thing. And then you're not getting hit or throwing the ball out of bounds and just play the next play.”
Which position group needs to make the biggest impact to have a third-consecutive winning season in the Big 12?
“I'm gonna do one on each side of the ball. I think the O line. It's there. I felt really comfortable coming out of spring but the o-line’s got, if you're talking about our first two years, that o-line has to make a jump. And then just because of the youth of the secondary, our secondary, there's some guys that really have to grow up. We can move some people around and put a really old secondary on the field but that might not be our best secondary, just be more experience. And so I think those are the two but at the end of the day to do that, for us to have played meaningful games in November, our offensive skill that we feel like we have made a huge upgrade, our offensive skill has got to be who they are supposed to be. Josh Kelly has to be Josh Kelly. Caleb Douglas has to be a home run hitter. Coy Eakin’s gotta continue to do what he does. Micah Hudson has got to be the freshman that we think he is. Like that offensive skill and then adding to the tight ends, I think when you come August 31 and watch us play the most dramatic part of this team is going to be the offensive skill.”
What are the emotions about having the south endzone project complete, being able to show to recruits and people in the future?
“We're excited, our guys literally are like, we moved in last week and Caleb Rogers is up there going through everything and we walked down. You know, I kind of gave him a tour and he's just blown away. You know, every guy, our guys, most of them came back last night. A couple are coming in this morning. They're just blown away. I can't wait in our first meeting is going to be field level in the south endzone. I can't wait for them to get down there and see everything because you know, it just ups the ante you know, it just ups the, it's a good thing. CJ Ah You says it all the time, pressure is a privilege and whenever you have something like that there is some really good pressure that is being put on you to be better. And so I can't wait for them to see it and I can't wait for our fans to see it.”
Are there any restrictions on Behren? What are you looking for health wise from him to play 12 games this season?
“No, there's no restrictions. You know, we're going in. He did a great job building everything up from the time that he went to Jacksonville until now. We had him on a pitch count and we've just increased that pitch count every single week. So we feel great about him coming in tomorrow and ready to go. I joked about it but I really do wish I would have had like, and I probably could find it from the Cal game until now because he's always in the sleeveless shirt, even more now because he thinks he's got a better body. But I wish I had that because his neck and his shoulders are so much bigger. It's a mixture of all of us. It starts with me, with Kittley with the play calls. Getting him to understand you know a check down getting the ball out is a good thing. I think the one good thing y'all know that I've been a proponent that we screwed up the opportunity to fix the player to coach communication or coach to player communication. But the one good thing is I think there's gonna be some alerts to help him get the ball out. Zach can help him with. Then Clay McGuire and the o-line got to do a good job protecting him, the running backs when they're in pass protection. The tight ends when they’re in pass protection, it's all of us. You know, it starts with with me and Kit and then you know getting Behren to understand, you know, one yard versus him playing the next series, him playing the next series is more important, unless it’s the last yard to win the game.”
How about Micah Hudson, is he 100% ready to go?
“He's full go. In fact, his wide receiver trainer posted something this weekend where he was training and running routes and doing a bunch of stuff. He's really hungry. Mike, I've said this 100 times. He's one of the most unique people I've ever been around in my life. But he's like, you can tell there's a chip on his shoulder from the standpoint of he understands the expectations and the hype surrounding him. It won't even come close to what he thinks he can do like what he believes about itself. And so not only does he want to prove us right but he also there's going to be some chip on my shoulder, I'm gonna show my teammates exactly who I am too. So he literally, he was with (coach Justin) Juice (Johnson) in his office. They're hanging out and talking to practice tomorrow. So he's ready to go. He looks great. Weighs 194 pounds and really excited about see what he can do.”
Do you talk to him separately about those expectations or let him go and see how he deals with it?
“Yeah, no, if he was not so mature and you know I might feed the expectations. I sent him a highlight video. There was something on social media the other day for Florida State, was it Warrick that was so good, that was excellent. I sent it to him. He was like I got you coach. I mean, I might feed it a little bit just because I have a lot of expectations of him and also know his maturity level he can handle it.”
It was announced yesterday that Josh Kelly will be wearing No. 3, just take us through that decision and why he embodies what that means for the program.
“What I love, actually there's another guy on our team that reminds me so much of this. So whenever I got to the school in Waco, Tyler Young, who is a legend at Baylor, was playing linebacker and he was number one. And Coach Rhule took all the single digits away. And Taylor said coach, whatever you need to do to make this team better, just realize I'm gonna get my number back and I saw this dude just work his tail off. For Josh, when we're recruiting, he wears number three. And so whenever I was recruiting him, I told him I said, Look, if you want to wear number three, you got to earn it. It means something in this building and this is what it means. And I went through the whole story. And I said, so in the spring, if you're here and you decide to be a Red Raider, and we're going to put you in a different jersey, he goes, you'll have me in three when we start camp. It's a guy like that, that comes out works every single day. He makes his teammates better by his work ethic. And, you know, he's just such a positive. He really has a great vibe. He's very positive. He's another guy. He's an alpha. Like, it's crazy. Micah and Josh remind me a lot of each other. Josh is probably a little bit more outspoken, but he's also older, but like whenever they walk on the field, their mindset is I am the best player on this football field. And I'm gonna go prove it to everybody.”
McGuire mentioned if they had to line up wide receivers right now, Caleb Douglas would be the “X” outside receiver, Josh Kelly at the “Y” slot receiver, and then Coy Eakin at the “Z” outside receiver. Drae McCray can still play inside and outside, as can Josh Kelly. Since Micah Hudson missed spring, he will primarily work inside this fall. Brady Boyd and Jordan Brown can both play inside and outside. McGuire also mentioned Kelby Valsin and TJ West, said both had good spring camps.
Joey was also asked about roster limits and how this will potentially affect the rosters and/or recruiting classes in the coming years:
“Yeah, it's gonna be interesting because we're getting really close to our number. We'll probably have another two, maybe three. And then if a unicorn pops in recruiting, but we probably have another two spots. So that will put us at 19. That's, I mean, I feel good about that. That's probably like five to six lower than what we've signed over the last three years. That has to do because we've signed so many freshmen and we've got a lot of guys that will be coming back. There'll be a crunch. You know, there'll be guys if it was right now. I mean, there would be some guys that would be on the team that you've got to say, hey, we're at 105 and this is where we're at. I'm really glad that they decided on that number. I was getting worried. Mike Ramirez actually did a study for us. Georgia's trainer was the first one to do it. But if you look if they were stuck at 85. And they were trying to look at it like an NFL model. The problem is if one of our guys gets hurt, we can't go sign somebody off the street. You know, we're at 85. So you go into that Texas game last year. If you count the guys I was trying to redshirt and the injured, we had 51 healthy players to play against the University of Texas, which makes a huge difference when you're talking about roster so there are going to be some discussions on like that. It's just like in the NFL, who's no. 101, no. 102, what positions does that look like, how many guys you’re carrying in each position. I'll always carry four quarterbacks just because my first two years but it's going to be one of those deals that there's going to be some guys that competition will be really heavy whenever we get through the season.”
Injury updates before fall camp begins:
Porcher as mentioned above, will do individual drills but nothing strenuous as to not disturb his hamstring too much. Miquel Dingle will begin in a non-contact jersey, staff is taking extra caution with his injury. Micah Hudson is also back to full volume workouts. Isaac Smith is ready to go, as well.
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