Tramel's ScissorTales: Why Joey McGuire believes Big 12 title goes through Texas Tech
What happens in the locker room stays in the locker room. Unless it doesn’t.
And sometimes in college football, locker-room hyperbole isn’t leaked, it’s unleashed. Which is what happened at Texas Tech after the Red Raiders beat Texas 37-34 in overtime last September.
It was Joey McGuire’s fourth game as the Tech coach, and he told his troops in the post-game locker room that “everything runs through Lubbock.”
Pat Clancy, Tech’s director of content/creative storytelling, promoted the video footage of McGuire’s exuberance, and it drew some eyebrows.
Tech went on to an 8-5 season, its best record since 2013, and Thursday during Big 12 Media Days, McGuire was asked if he stands by his statement and are the Red Raiders poised to become the flagship program of the Big 12 going forward.
“I love that question for so many reasons,” McGuire said. “Pat Clancy is … our storyteller for Texas Tech. I told him after that, I said ‘some things are just for the locker room and some things are for everybody.’
“He looked at me and he said, ‘I'm sorry, Coach.’ And I said, ‘You know what, Pat? There's nothing that comes out of my mouth that I don't truly 100 percent believe. So maybe that was for the locker room, but I still believe it.’”
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Good for McGuire. If you say it, stand by it. Don’t regret something going public if it’s said to more than 100 people.
As for Tech becoming the flagship program, who knows? You know who else swept both OU and Texas? Texas Christian, and the Frogs didn’t need overtime either game, dominating both the Sooners and Longhorns, en route to the national championship game.
And Kansas State and Baylor have won the two most recent Big 12 titles, and OSU finished No. 7 in the final Associated Press poll a mere 18 months ago, and Central Florida looks primed to be a Big 12 contender.
A Tech team that went 8-5 just as easily could have been 5-8. The Red Raiders were 3-0 in overtime games and won their one other game decided by eight points or less.
Still, you’ve got to like the imprint McGuire has put on the program.
“I think that's such a powerful word (believe), and whenever you have that in a locker room, you can do some incredible things,” McGuire said. “So I think our players do believe that. I do think in 2024 there's an opportunity for some teams to take a huge step in this conference.
“It's going to start this year with what we do, but whenever you have an administration and an alumni base that is behind a university like they are at Texas Tech, you do have that opportunity.”
McGuire cited Tech’s $219 million football facility project.
“We'll have as good of facilities as anybody in the country,” McGuire said. “We have a very healthy locker room. We have a group of guys that believe in each other.
“I feel like we're in a really good spot. I can't wait to get into Big 12 play. And kind of like last year, there's going to be a lot of really good games, and we're excited to be a part of them.”
Not everything Big 12 leads through Lubbock. But at least one road leads through Lubbock, and that road won’t be easy anytime soon for Tech opponents.
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WVU’s Neal Brown upset at last-place prognostication
West Virginia coach Neal Brown was not happy about the Big 12 preseason poll placing his Mountaineers 14th in the 14-team Big 12.
“Upset about the media poll,” Brown said. “Definitely do not agree with that.
“The good thing, the positive is that the media, as far as predicting the Big 12, has not been successful in recent years, so I think that bodes well for us.”
Brown said he was kidding, but his tone suggested otherwise.
Of course, this is a new issue in the Big 12. For more than a decade, Kansas was an automatic choice for last place in the 10-team conference, and the Jayhawks always complied. Now KU has grown fangs, and someone must be last, both in the preseason poll and in the eventual standings.
Brown said he was vacationing on the beach last week when West Virginia publicist Mike Montoro texted the result of the poll.
“I made the mistake of looking at it,” Brown said. “From that point on, my vacation was over. I went into football mode.”
Brown’s disgust likely stems from his tenuous job status. The Mountaineers are 22-25 in his four seasons, and it’s believed that Brown kept his job after the 2022 season only because of WVU’s precarious finances.
Still, the Mountaineers beat both OU and OSU last November, and while the Bedlam rivals were staggering against most teams down the stretch, a sweep of the Oklahoma schools was a sign that WVU football still has life.
Brown says this is his best offensive talent, which makes sense if you look at the 132 career starts among his offensive linemen and which doesn’t if you look at limited quarterbacks Garrett Greene and Nicco Marchiol. Brown said the Mountaineer defense must improve at preventing explosive plays, which indeed would help.
Brown assembled his team on Tuesday and talked “in detail” about the last-place pick, in “probably more colorful terms than I just did here, but a lot of the same things that I said to our team, I just repeated here in front of you all.
“We've been focused on ourselves, getting ourselves better. This is something that's going to increase the size of the chip. The chip was already there on the shoulder; it just increases the size.”
Give Brown credit. Most coaches say they don’t care what others say. Say they don’t pay attention to outside noise. But they do. And Brown admits it.
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Matt Campbell, Jon Heacock go way back
Defensive coordinator Jon Heacock has been a lynchpin in Iowa State’s success in recent years. The Cyclones’ 3-3-5 defense is the envy of many; several Big 12 programs, including OSU, have copied or are trying to, the ISU defense.
Heacock, 62, is a former head coach at Youngstown State, where he had a 60-44 record from 2001-09. Heacock was d-coordinator for Matt Campbell at Toledo in 2014-15, and when the Cyclones hired Campbell as head coach for the 2016 season, he brought along Heacock.
But Campbell, 43, and Heacock go back much further. Campbell’s father, Rick, was a high school coach in Massillon, Ohio, when Heacock was a high school coach at Steubenville, Ohio, in 1984. And when Matt Campbell came out of Massillon’s Perry High School, he was recruited by Heacock for Youngstown State, though Campbell chose to go to Mount Union.
“The relationship that we have had with the Heacock family and Coach Heacock dates back a long time,” Matt Campbell said.
“For me, trust is so critical in this journey, especially in college football, and relationships, continuity and trust, it's hard to find that. That’s what Jon has meant to me.”
Campbell said he’s still far from having all the answers, so you can imagine what he was like at 32, when Toledo named him head coach.
"To have somebody like Coach Heacock come on board who had had head coaching experiences, who had been through the highs and the lows that college football can bring, he's been a steadying force every step of the way for me,” Campbell said.
“I think what's been so rewarding is to watch the success we've been able to have on defense and him get the credit for it. Because I do, I think Jon is one of the great coaches in college football.
“What we do on defense is not really what's special. How we do what we do on defense is what's made us really special, and it starts with his leadership. I know we wouldn't be where we're at at Iowa State, and I certainly wouldn't be where I'm at without his guidance, his relationship and certainly his love for our players and our coaches. He's been nothing short of exceptional.”
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Mailbag: OU’s SEC future
OU’s future in the Southeastern Conference always will be a topic of discussion, until we indeed see how the Sooners fare.
Luke: “Colin Cowherd recently compared OU’s move to the SEC to Nebraska’s move to the Big Ten and (its) subsequent residency in ‘oblivion.’ He cites OU not hiring the right coach, and the fact that no kid wants to leave the South to come to OU as reasons why OU will be the next Nebraska. My question is, over the next 10 years, will OU have more national titles or losing seasons?”
Tramel: I feel quite assured in my answer. Neither. The Sooners will have zero losing seasons and zero national titles.
National titles are hard to win. Really hard. Sort of like NBA championships. In the 21 seasons from 2001-21, OU had several great teams and didn’t win the national title. Making the 12-team playoff will be easier, even in the SEC, but winning the 12-team playoff will be much more difficult.
But also, a school like OU has to fall victim to cosmic alignment to have a losing season. Look at last season. The Sooners fell victim to a coaching change that stripped the roster of some star power and gave OU a weakened roster, the squad suffered a rash of close losses, an injury to quarterback Dillon Gabriel gave the Sooners no chance against Texas, and OU played a bowl game with several standout Sooners sitting out against an opponent (Florida State) that fielded a full squad.
And still, OU was 6-6 until the Seminoles’ last-minute field goal sent the Sooners below .500.
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The List: Big 12 coaches’ entertainment value
Ranking the seven Big 12 coaches who took the podium Thursday at Media Days, based on entertainment value.
1. Joey McGuire, Texas Tech: A people person supreme, McGuire charms everyone from media to Texas high school football coaches, of which he was one not that long ago.
2. Gus Malzahn, Central Florida: Malzahn is sharp and confident, and he’s a veteran with a big press corps.
3. Scott Satterfield, Cincinnati: Satterfield’s Carolina accent is charming, and he was a solid interview in Arlington. And he’s fresh blood.
4. Brent Venables, OU: Venables usually says interesting things, and he’s quite personable. Though his answers often are too long, he curtailed them to some extent in Arlington.
5. Matt Campbell, Iowa State: A quality person and a quality coach, but he’s the second-longest tenured Big 12 coach, and his message can get repetitive.
6. Chris Klieman, Kansas State: Doesn’t end up having much to say. All he does is win football games.
7. Neal Brown, West Virginia: Brown usually is friendly and affable but was in a sour mood Thursday. Hated to see it.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Big 12 football: Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire says Red Raiders ready
