Joey McGuire spoke with the media on Tuesday morning following Texas Tech's practice. Here's what he had to say.
- McGuire said they'll use this time to get some guys healthy and make evaluations on some. First off, they'll be getting back Cam'ron Valdez for the West Virginia game. All three QBs, Donovan Smith, Behren Morton and Tyler Shough, were participating in practice since week one. Shough threw during 7-on-7's. However, he still isn't fully cleared quite yet. He can throw and do a lot but both doctors will evaluate him next Monday. McGuire said depending on that then he can take some hits and play against West Virginia. If not, he's confident in his return for Baylor.
- WR Loic Fouonji and DB Malik Dunlap have both been dealing with some shoulder issues, McGuire said. This time gives the guys that are banged up some recovery time.
- For about 20 minutes, the young guys scrimmaged against each other, McGuire said. He didn't give specific names there but expects the same to happen tomorrow.
- Morton's injury ended up being an ankle sprain. He just rolled it up. McGuire said all three QBs are tough and they've played through pain. Smith was good and threw the ball well during Tuesday's practice. McGuire said at the end of the day it is a tough decision on who to start but his job at the end of the day is to put the best guys out there that gives them the chance to beat West Virginia.
- McGuire said the Big 12 has been competitive for a few reasons but it's a mixture of COVID 19. H explained, when looking at Oklahoma State specifically, they have defensive linemen and a QB that have been in Stillwater for five years. Baylor is the same with the offensive line with four of the five being five-year players. The extra year or added time has made the conference old and gives team experience. Meanwhile, the Red Raiders are running some young guys on offense. They're still producing but they're getting better facing experienced opponents.
- McGuire said the defensive line and wide receiver room have really stepped into the challenge this year. Besides Myles Price, that room is in experienced. But the young guys like Nehemiah Martinez, Xavier White and others have stepped up. Tony Bradford Jr. has been having his best season so far upfront.
- WR Coy Eakin will be ready to play against West Virginia.
- They can only take 70 players on road trips to play. McGuire said he knew how important it was for Myles Price, who didn't practice on Monday, to join the team in Stillwater. So, instead the Red Raiders took Price and had 69 players available to play.
- OT Ty Buchanan had a good day in practice. McGuire said Buchanan is having his first reps at left tackle so he's adjusting. The frustrating thing, McGuire said, is whenever he talks about sacks you can recognize "that's a sack on the tackle." But, McGuire said, they should've given up one sack on the game. He said they didn't throw the ball away or missed a read.
"The whole deal is - it's easy to see and pick on the guy that captain obvious can see that he got beat, but should the ball have already been out? Did the receiver run the route at the right depth? It's a collection of yes, there's just some pure sacks to where we're getting beat, but there's also a call - I thought we did a much better job at protecting our offensive line with the calls, Behren getting the ball out and we did some really good things chipping their d-line. We just got to be better and keep working on it."
- Jah'Shawn Johnson has been a grad assistant for the Red Raiders this past season. Here's what McGuire said about the former Red Raider safety as a coach:
"He's awesome, man. He's a superstar in this business - a rising superstar. He's got great passion for football. I mean, obviously, everybody knows that's watched him play he has a high IQ for football. He relates to the players and then he's extremely hard on the players. A lot of young guys whenever you don't have that much age difference between like the juniors and seniors it's easy to be buddy-buddy instead of being demanding and that's not who he is. He's extremely demanding. He relates to them and he's going to be a rockstar in this business. I'm glad we got him."
- McGuire said he texted Matt Rhule last night after his firing from the Carolina Panthers. McGuire's son, Garret, was on staff with Rhule and Joey said he spoke with him as well. Joey said he'll call Rhule today to tell him he loves him. He said it's tough in this business especially when a mentor loses his job. McGuire said no matter what he does Rhule should stay in football at some level. He said he told Gary Patterson at the Texas game that he should go after one of the open jobs because he thinks Patterson is good for college football.
