McGuire balancing portal recruiting, ongoing game-prep for Cal
Texas Tech is well underway with its practice and preparation for next week’s Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl against California in Shreveport, LA. From the bowl game to portal recruitment, even moving facilities in the midst of all of it, finding the happy medium between priorities has not been an easy task for those involved. Lubbock has been host to several visitors from the transfer portal, and is set to host even more this weekend, adding onto the blur that has been the few days since the portal officially opened.
“We don’t sleep, no, this is the world we live in right now. December is probably the busiest time of year,” head coach Joey McGuire said following the Red Raiders’ practice Friday. “I would rather have it thataway, I know some guys, I actually heard the SEC commissioner (Greg Sankey) talk about moving the signing day back and I don’t want that. I want to get my guys signed and then January, after the bowl game, after everything is over, be able to go out and recruit underclassmen and take a deep breath. So right now, we’re literally 24/7 between visitors and practice in bowl prep. The good thing is our guys are excited. We’ve had really, really good practices.”
The transfer portal opening Dec. 4 has also opened the gateway for players to pack their bags and not partake in their current team’s bowl game. The Red Raiders are already expected to be down several receivers and offensive linemen heading into Shreveport, and the continuity of a team can get damaged when key players hit the portal before the bowl. Though this might strike some as an issue, the reality is the men behind the scenes are in the midst of their own grind.
“I always look at it as like a portal guy is an injury guy, one of those deals that would be like a long term injury we don’t have,” McGuire said. “I think that we have a great plan, that is one thing. I’ve been giving (General Manager James) Blanchard’s group a hard time, because when they go to lunch, I’ll see them walking out and they’ll tell me ‘Hey coach, we’re fixing to go to lunch,’ and I’ll go ‘I guess the portal took a lunch break’ and they’ll start laughing at me going ‘Oh coach, we’re good, we got everything going.’ But you’re talking about a group of four with James Blanchard, Brian Nance, Sean Kenney and Jake Pittman, those guys are working, I mean, nonstop. They’re going to each position coach, hey let’s evaluate this guy and we feel like we have a great plan.
I think it’ll be less and less because we’re looking to sign somewhere between 22 and 24 high school guys, we signed I think 24 last year. As we build this roster from the ground up, this will be less and less, we hope anyway. It’s the nature of the beast. The tough thing right now is we’re playing NFL football without a salary cap or really knowing what the market value is for certain players, because that's happening right now. I always laugh because there might be somebody that’s like this guess of this kid is getting into the portal and you see it on social media and I could probably tell you where he’s going to go and how much he’s going to get. And he’s not officially in the portal yet. A lot of dirty business going on right now, luckily we haven’t been through that.”
McGuire has mentioned that the Red Raiders will look to sign anywhere from “six to 10” players from the portal. The head coach confirmed Friday that Tech is aiming to bring in three offensive linemen, two tight ends, a wide receiver, a defensive tackle and a true cover corner. The staff has already received commitments from a tight end, Alex Lines, and a defensive tackle, Danny Saili. With Tech looking to bring in another corner, the secondary next season will have a revamped look, including Adonis (AJ) McCarty, who was brought in from Baylor during the summer, but had to sit out this season.
“(McCarty’s) looked great, but he’s gonna be a STAR,” McGuire said, referencing the slot corner-type position in the defense. “He’s played a lot of stuff and he helps us out scout team wise at corner, but we’re gonna play him at STAR. So like if you look where we’re at right now and you fast forward it to next year, you got AJ and BJ (Jordan) at STAR. You’re gonna have Chapman (Lewis) and Marcus Ramon-Edwards (at field safety), then when you look at the boundary (safety), you got CJ (Baskerville) and Jordan Sanford. We really feel good there. But it’s also if somebody pops up there at the position is really good, we’ve got like Jordan Sanford who could play corner or boundary safety. So we could move him if there’s a really good safety out there.”
