RedRaiderSports previously had the opportunity to talk with Joey McGuire for a one-on-one interview that covered a wide range of topics shortly after he was hired at Texas Tech.
At what point in your life did becoming a head coach of a high school or college team become the goal for you?
“You know, it was really early during my first year of coaching,” McGuire said. “This is going to sound crazy, but I was the head freshman baseball coach in Crowley, Texas. Having my own team and being able to control practice and how we practiced, everything like that. I just fell in love with it. After that first year, everything I did was to become a high school head coach. I was able to do that but in 2016 it was time for a change.
"I wanted to take a shot at being a college coach, and I had opportunities from 2006 to 2016 to do so, but I wanted to finish with my son and daughter and their careers. I thought that was really important. In 2016, when I made to move, I really felt like it was a great partnership with Matt Rhule because he recognized really fast that I wanted to be a head coach at this level.
"Having a mentor like him recognize that and pour into me for the three years we were together the differences between a high school coach and a college coach. He was able to bridge the gap and help me get into the position I’m in today.”
Now that this is your show as head coach, is Matt Rhule the one person that you’ll glean from the most or is it a combination of people?
“It’s a combination of people,” McGuire noted. “I worked for a great man in Robert Woods who’s in the Texas High School Hall of Fame and won a state championship as a head coach at Wilmer Hutchins. The guy called the offense and the defense, it was pretty incredible. Sam Harrell is one of my mentors. Mike Copeland, who was the head coach at Stephenville after coach Briles. Kiff Hardin, who is the head coach at Rowlett.
"The guy who helped me bridge the gap between high school and college though was coach Rhule. I talk to him every single day. A lot of times we just talk about life because we’re good friends, but I promise you, he asks me as many questions as I ask him. We talk about what’s going on there, what’s going on here, and how we’re both building our programs."
Were you surprised when Matt Rhule decided to go to the NFL?
“I wasn’t surprised at all and it kind of directed my path a little different,” McGuire said. “I felt like that's what his goal was, and that’s what he wanted to do. He had the opportunity in 2017, ’18, and ’19 to do it, and 2019 just worked out as the perfect situation, so it didn’t surprise me at all. I think that was his goal and what he really wanted to do.”
What was the dynamic and thought process behind the hiring of your offensive and defensive coordinators?
“Putting a staff together at Cedar Hill was a lot like putting a staff together here from the standpoint of that we had a young staff, but I always made sure we had some guys with experience,” McGuire said. “It didn’t necessarily have to be coordinators or anything like that. I had a head coach that was on that staff with me at Cedar Hill, Calvin Ruzicka. He was a couple of years older than me, but he had been a head coach and I wanted that experience.
"That’s the great thing about coach DeRuyter, he’s been a head coach, so that’s going to help me tremendously. I’ve known him for a long time and have so much respect for him. Everywhere he’s been they’ve played good defense, so that was important.
"Then Zach is one of the brightest young coaches in football today. Getting to know him during the interview, we sat down and talked, and I had a bunch of questions for him.
"The one thing I want to do on both sides of the ball is establish what our identity is going to be when we put all the pieces together. Having both of them explain to me what they wanted to do and how we can do it together made it really easy. Knowing Tim (DeRuyter) like I do, that was a little easier from the standpoint of having a lot of history and game film to verify exactly who he is. With Zach, he was able to do it at two different places and did it a little bit different both times.”
Are both coordinators planning on adapting their schemes to who’s currently on the roster?
“No doubt, the number one thing about Zach in his interview that made me just fall in love with what we're going to be able to do was that right there,” McGuire noted. “He (Kittley) comes out right off the bat and goes ‘Coach, I know I have this label on me about who I am, but who I am as an offensive coordinator is someone who wants to get the best personnel on the field. I don’t believe if I have the best tight end in the country that he should standing next to me so we can put in a fourth or fifth receiver.’
"He showed me what they did at Houston Baptist when they had two good running backs and they ran 20 personnel a lot. Then he showed me the beginning of this season when Western Kentucky ran 11 and 12 personnel a lot because both tight ends got hurt. He wouldn’t put in the third tight end just to stay in certain personnel.
"I take that as a badge of honor because that’s what high school coaches have to do every single year. They have to adapt and adjust, so when he said that it fell right into my wheelhouse because that’s what you have to do in high school. If you want to win, you have to get your best players on the field. If it’s a year where you have two really good tailbacks, then that’s who you run with. Him (Kittley) showing me he could do that was a big reason why he’s here.
“I was watching a bunch of Oregon film as I was going through and getting ready to talk to Tim (DeRuyter). He’s primarily been in a lot of odd fronts. You watch the Oregon stuff, and he basically played with four down and two edge rushers. They were more outside linebacker/defensive end type of guys, but he had more of a traditional four down approach with two big guys and a lot of fast guys.
"I think that’s what’s great about both coordinators, is their ability to adapt to their personnel, but we’re going to recruit our tails off to get the right personnel in here to fit what we’re trying to do.”
Do you concern yourself with college football playoff expansion and realignment at all?
“I do, and I was really excited that Cincinnati got to play in that game,” McGuire said. “It’s funny how different coaches have bounced back and forth on what it takes to get there. Whether you win your conference or don’t win your conference, you try to make the statement that you’re in a really tough conference, so you deserve to be there. You’ve seen that and quite often it ends up like that.
"My deal with expansion is and whatever we end doing with the conferences, I do think the conference champion should be in that game, so you’re probably going to have to expand it. I think it’s important that if you win your conference, then you're in that game. Then you have to factor in the at-large bids and everything like that, but I was really excited Cincinnati made it. They deserved to be there.
“I can’t wait for Cincinnati to join the Big 12. That’s a great program and they do an incredible job. It’s going to be really exciting football and a lot of fun with the new Big 12. You talk about traveling now. When BYU played at Baylor earlier this year, they had just as many fans present as Texas did in McLane stadium.”
