Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire stands behind provocative comments about UT

Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire isn't taking back comments he and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark made about Texas that caused a stir.

"I'm not one of those coaches," McGuire said Saturday. "There's a lot of coaches out there in this profession that kind of (use) coach talk. It's like, 'Yeah, we'll be OK,' this and this and that. And that's fine. A lot of guys say that and win a lot of football games. That's not who I am."

McGuire made the follow-up comments at the 62nd Knights of Columbus Tech Night Kickoff, an annual preseason football event. He spoke from the stage to a crowd of about 1,000. Tech senior associate athletics director Robert Giovannetti, an emcee of the event, asked McGuire about the remarks three days before that ruffled feathers.

Yormark, speaking to a crowd at the Red Raider Club kickoff luncheon, said he'll attend Texas Tech's regular-season finale at Texas. He told McGuire "you'd better take care of business like you did here in Lubbock last year," referring to the Red Raiders' 37-34 victory in overtime against the Longhorns.

At the same event, McGuire referred to departing Big 12 members Texas and Oklahoma as "so-called bluebloods" and poked fun at Texas' school color, burnt orange.

After the Red Raiders beat the Longhorns last year, an ecstatic McGuire told his team: "The country's going to find out: Everything runs through Lubbock." He's since said his post-game talk was supposed to be in-house, not put on social media.

"Number one, anything that I say, I believe," McGuire said to the KOC Tech Night crowd. "And then I think you have to say that stuff to get your kids to start believing and players start to believe, 'Here's what we expect. This is our standard.'

"I didn't come here to win eight games. I didn't come here to beat Texas and OU in the same year. I came here to win the Big 12."

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This is Texas' and Oklahoma's last season in the Big 12 before they join the Southeastern Conference in July 2024. To support his belief in thinking and talking big, McGuire used as examples last year's Kansas State and TCU teams. K-State won the Big 12 and played in the Sugar Bowl, and TCU went undefeated in the regular season and made the championship game of the College Football Playoff.

"Why not us? Why not the greatest university in the country?" McGuire said to audience applause. "I really believe that. I don't say that (lightly). I think we're going to recruit at that level."

McGuire also suggested Saturday that he talked new Red Raiders assistant coach Justin (Juice) Johnson out of taking a job on the Texas staff after last season. In moves announced on Jan. 10, Nevada-Las Vegas hired Brennan Marion off the Texas staff, and Oklahoma hired Emmett Jones off the Tech staff. On Jan. 11, Tech hired Johnson away from Baylor.

"I actually talked to Juice a couple of days before," McGuire said. "We were at the AFCA football convention (Jan. 8-10), and he said, 'Hey, coach, I've got an offer to a team that wears a weird color.' Burnt orange. I didn't see it on the color wheel. He actually said, 'They've offered me a job.' "

McGuire said he thought it would be a good career move for Johnson, but then was caught off-guard when OU hired Jones.

"I called him the next day," McGuire said, "and said, 'Hey, I told you that you need to take that job. You don't need to take that job. We have a job and need you to come to Lubbock.' "

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire stands behind provocative comments about UT