Joey McGuire on WVU Test, Former Player Reunion, and Texas Tech’s Path to the Playoff

The West Virginia Mountaineers (4-7, 2-6) take on the No. 5 Texas Tech Red Raiders (10-1, 7-1) on Saturday. Kickoff is set for noon EST and the action will be televised on ESPN.

Texas Tech is looking to clinch is first Big 12 Championship this weekend. The Red Raiders can lock up a trip to Arlington for the Big 12 title game if Arizona knocks off Arizona State on Friday night. However, Tech has its eyes on the college football playoff and a first round bye and head coach Joey McGuire made it clear during his weekly press conference on Monday, the playoffs start in Morgantown.

Initial thoughts on WVU during McGuire’s opening statment

“I have a lot of respect for coach Rodriguez – don’t know him very well but know a lot of guys that worked with him and worked for him. He’s a great offensive mind and what’s very impressive is once they really settled on their quarterback, their freshman quarterback (Scotty) Fox (Jr.), he has played really well. Beating Houston at Houston and beating Colorado and then a good game their last game. He’s playing really well. He’s going to give them a lot – a spark. A dual threat guy and so, it’s going to be a really interesting game.”

Reuniting with former player, and WVU assistant, Logan Bradley, who played for McGuire at Cedar Hill High School

“I’m really excited. On Saturday, I texted Logan Bradley – So, Logan Bradley, he’s their inside receivers coach, he played for me. He was on the team that his sophomore year, played for it (Texas state championship) in 2012, we won it in ’13, we won it in ’14, then he went to Ole Miss. I had three receivers go to Ole Miss at the time.

“He’s a great guy. He’s got a great family, awesome wife. I was telling him just going to be excited to see him. He’s a great person. He’s done a really good job of coming up through the ranks. He was kind of Hugh Freeze’s, I wouldn’t say gopher, but what ever he needed him to do as far as in the office and just trying to learn that way. He’s a really hard worker and man I’m excited. I love him to death, but I want to beat his tail on Saturday.”

Challenges on facing West Virginia

“One, coach Rodriguez is offensive guru. Like, he is. They’re going to tempo. You go back and look at his career, I mean, he’s kind of the king of the temp. He has got playmakers. They do a great job of getting the ball out on the perimeter. I think that’s going to be a part of it.

“They’re playing really, really hard. Last night, whenever I was leaving, I was asking (running backs coach) Garrett (McGuire) like, ‘what do you think about these guys?’ And he goes, ‘Well, I’ll tell you right now, they’re really hard.’ And whenever you got that, that means they still believe.

“I think that has a lot to do with their freshman quarterback. He’s really played a lot better. Whenever he first got in the game, they threw him in a couple times against BYU, because another kid was starting, you could see the game was fast – it was really fast for him. The game slowed down.

“So, whenever you got a vet coach, I mean the guy’s won like 194 games-plus and you’re sitting there – they’re 4-7, so they can’t be bowl eligible but you get to play the number five team in the nation, they’re going to be jacked up.

“It’s a really tough place to play. I don’t think between Baylor and Tech, I don’t think I’ve ever gone in there and been a part of a win before. It’s going to be a tough game. We’re taking this game like every game we’ve played this year that this is a playoff game for us. We know that we win, we’re in.”

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