Texas Tech entered its bye week sitting at 5-1 overall and a perfect 3-0 record in the Big 12 after wire-to-wire, close wins in September and early October for the Red Raiders.

It's all come crashing down over the past two weeks with a blowout home loss to Baylor and a road loss where the Red Raiders saw a 31-14 lead slip away to TCU after Amon G. Carter stadium had cleared out late in the third quarter.

No one has taken it harder than the head coach of the Red Raiders, Joey McGuire, who loathes the missed opportunity to play truly meaningful football into November, something that would've been reality this coming weekend in Ames if Tech could've held on in Fort Worth.

"I do appreciate people's opinions and get it but I promise you, there's nobody that's more frustrated than me whenever it comes to opportunities," McGuire said. "Just because next year is next year doesn't mean that you're going to get the opportunity to be in the same position...you have to take advantage of the opportunities."

The past two weekends have seemingly halted the momentum that the Red Raiders have built under the McGuire coaching staff with back-to-back winning conference records and lofty expectations externally. It's not lost on McGuire after the past two weekends for the Red Raiders.

"I want to tell y'all, and you can believe me or not believe me, there's no person that wants to win more for this fan base than me," McGuire said. "It bothers me that people are upset, it bothers me. Not that they're upset with me, again, say whatever you want. It bothers me because we couldn't take care of business on Saturday that this is how people feel that are Red Raiders. It bothers me so if you don't think it does or whatever it is. Trust me, it does, and I'm going to get it fixed."

Now that Texas Tech is effectively eliminated from Big 12 Championship contention, McGuire isn't throwing in the towel. With plenty of opportunity to do things that haven't been done in Lubbock since the great Mike Leach, McGuire wants to continue to build his program toward the ultimate goal.

"We're going to keep building. We're going to keep fighting. That's what Red Raiders are. That's what we're going to do," McGuire said.

"There's a lot of things that are on the table. I know nobody wants to hear this, but this is what I said to the team yesterday. We have not won four consecutive bowl games since Mike Leach. Okay, it's 2024, so that was 2000 to 2010, we have an opportunity to do that. In the history of Texas Tech, and I could be totally wrong about this. I go back to 1932 and I know we've been playing since 1925, Texas Tech has never won four consecutive bowl games. We have the opportunity to do that. I believe that we can beat anybody on our schedule, and it's been since 2009 that Texas Tech has won nine games, we have the opportunity to do that."

While the ultimate goal is lost, McGuire is committed to getting it right, and is looking to use the remainder of the season as a launching point forward.

"We are pushing this program forward. We're going to find a way to do that," McGuire said. "And you know that I'm fired up about that. I'm not upset about any of that. I'm fired up about that because I want my guys to believe that. And they do."