Texas Tech's McGuire looks forward to NC State road trip

Texas Tech is off to a hot start this year, and the program is now preparing for this weekend’s cross-country road trip to NC State. While the two schools are more than 1,500 miles apart, there are multiple connections between the two football programs, including the coaching staffs and one former member of the Pack who transferred to Lubbock. 

Joey McGuire, the head coach of the Red Raiders, held his weekly press conference Monday and explained the connection between him and NC State head coach Dave Doeren that dates all the way back to when McGuire was coaching at the high school level and Doeren coached at Kansas.

“I’m getting to play one of my favorite people in the world,” McGuire said. “Dave Doeren and I go back a long way. He actually has a huge fingerprint on Cedar Hill. He was at Kansas in 2003, and he was the first guy to offer one of my guys whenever I was a head coach. He offered Marcus Herford, who played at Kansas, had a really good career, and we’ve been friends ever since. 

“He flew me out to Wisconsin, I spoke at their clinic. He was one of the first [people] to text me whenever I got this job. I mean, just the class act.” 

NC State special assistant to the head coach Ruffin McNeill also spent nine seasons with the Red Raiders before taking the head coach position at East Carolina, and other members of the Texas Tech staff have relationships with some of the Wolfpack’s assistants as well. 

McGuire was extremely complimentary of the culture Doeren has built during his decade in Raleigh, praising the talented and experienced group that his program will face this weekend. 

“This is a team that plays with incredible passion, and they play really fast and this is going to be a great game for us again to see where we’re at and to keep growing as a team,” McGuire said.

Wolfpack defensive coordinator Tony Gibson’s defensive scheme is also extremely familiar to the Texas Tech staff. McGuire coached against Gibson when McGuire was an assistant at Baylor and the NC State assistant was at West Virginia. During his press conference, McGuire credited Gibson as one of the originators of the odd stack scheme. 

On NC State’s defense, the Red Raiders head coach said Drake Thomas, Isaiah Moore and Tanner Ingle, stand out when watching the Pack. 

“[Ingle is] one of the best players in the country,” McGuire said.

“He’s deep when the ball is being thrown, and then when the ball is run, he’s around the football. So we’ve got to do a good job of accounting for him and have a plan for him.”

McGuire is familiar with NC State quarterback Devin Leary because Baylor recruited him. McGuire had plenty of nice things to say about the Wolfpack signal-caller’s arm talent and ability to make “any throw.”

“I remember before, when we were recruiting him, we thought the dude was going to be legit, and he definitely is,” McGuire said. 

“He’s a pro. He’s going to play in the NFL. He’s the real deal, so it’s going to be really a test for us.”

The first-year Texas Tech head coach got an inside look into NC State’s program when he watched the ACC All-Access show during training camp. He could tell this Wolfpack squad remains motivated after last season’s ending. 

“That should not happen,” McGuire said. “That was bad on the other team’s part that it even got to that.

“I know they have a chip on their shoulder and, not only do they have a chip on their shoulder, but they have a lot of people back that have chips on their shoulder.”

McGuire knows he’s leading the Red Raiders into a hostile environment at Carter-Finley Stadium, and his staff will spend time preparing the program for the crowd noise. 

“They have a really strong fan base, and they understand football,” he said. “We’ll work on that all week. We’ll have times in practice that we’ll turn up the volume and make sure that we’re ready to go.”

Texas Tech senior defensive back Malik Dunlap, who started his career at NC State, should be able to help with that preparation, McGuire said. 

In the days leading up to Saturday’s matchup, the Red Raiders’ head coach is excited to compete against a genuine friend and play against a ranked opponent during his first road trip to NC State. 

“I know that we both respect each other and respect how our teams are going to play, so it’s going to be a dogfight,” McGuire said.