Joey McGuire Says Texas Tech Has Its 'Hands Full' with 'Best Combo' in the Country

Now that we are two months into the season, West Virginia's dynamic duo of Mike Hawkins Jr. and Cam Cook aren't sneaking up on anyone anymore. They are among the best players in the country at their respective positions, and even Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire believes they are among that group.

“Offensively, they’re one of the best teams in the country. They scored against everybody. They’re top 25 in scoring. They’re top 10 in rushing. Explosive plays in the run game. The quarterback, running back combination is the best combination of running the football in the country. And so, man, we have got our hands full."

Texas Tech has been good against the run for much of the year...when they play teams who can't run the ball. The two teams that do run it efficiently — Houston and Cincinnati — ran for 175 and 255 on them.

The Mountaineers have been able to run on everyone they've played this season, including TCU, the Big 12's best defense, putting 186 yards on them. Assuming West Virginia can get the ground game going as usual, they will have a chance to hang around and potentially shock the world with an upset win.

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McGuire is also aware of WVU's defensive struggles, but noted that defensive coordinator Zac Alley made some tweaks in the win over the Horned Frogs that turned out to be successful, with the unit posting their best performance in conference play.

“The one thing they did... and they had a bye week, so they had another week to work on it; they changed defensively. They had it in there, but they weren’t doing it as much. They went to a lot of their odd stack, and if you look at their last game, it was 24-20 against TCU, and they played a lot better defense. So if that continues, it’s going to be a four-round fight on Saturday.”

Although it was still far from perfect, the Mountaineers were able to bow up and get stops and force a few turnovers on the plus side of the field, keeping TCU off the board. Now comes the next part of the defense's growth — getting some three-and-outs. If Alley's crew can get three or so of those on Saturday, we could have an intense finish in Lubbock.

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