The fifth day of Texas Tech-mas - hiring Joey McGuire

On the fifth day of Texas Tech-mas, my Red Raiders gave to me...

The hiring of Joey McGuire as the next head coach of Texas Tech football.

The fifth day needed to be an important moment. It’s the five golden rings day. While these various moments aren’t intended to be sung (but major props if you actually try to do that in your head), I wanted to definitely honor the spirit of the song. Day five gets the emphasis. The emphasis for 2021 for Tech fans is most assuredly McGuire being hired. That’s got a ring to it. Somebody should hashtag that.

Coach McGuire, aka CJM or CJFM for the excited or even CJMFM for the extremely excited, (if you’re not sure what those initials stand for then just message me and I’ll spell it out for you) has brought with him a renewed fervor and excitement for the future of the Tech football program. A hope and excitement that most Tech fans haven’t seen since the 2009 football season. Coach McGuire’s signature “Let’s Gooooo!” and use of Ric Flair gifs has endeared himself to the fanbase that was severely fractured prior to the firing of Coach Matt Wells. Coach McGuire is a high energy guy and it’s very easy to see why he is so loved and respected by other coaches, particularly high school football coaches, around the state.

The above tweet from current Tech football player Reggie Pearson Jr.’s father speaks volumes about someone that is in charge of taking care of his son. I don’t know if there was a prior relationship or not but it doesn’t appear there was. A father and coach is giving some pretty high praise to someone that he’s probably only known for about a month. However, if I’m mistaken and they had already known each other, it’s still high praise either way you look at it. It appears Tech fans can be proud of the man they have leading their football program.

When Coach McGuire gets a commitment, “Lets goooooooooo!” with a Ric Flair gif and a “WreckEm” hashtag along with the year of the recruiting class follows on social media platforms. It’s fun and informative. While we may not know the name of the recruit, we at least know the recruiting class year. I have greatly appreciated that small nugget of information more than I thought I would. We have seen many similar tweets in recent weeks. Coach McGuire received three commitments for Tech the same day his hiring was announced and before he even signed his contract. It was primarily the relationship that Coach McGuire had already built that Tech even had a legitimate shot at bringing in Quinn Ewers. It was a legitimate shot regardless of what others say on Twitter.

Tech announced the hiring of McGuire on November 8th. Early signing day was December 15th. That’s 37 days. In 37 days, Coach McGuire raised the Tech football high school recruiting class (recruiting rankings don’t take into account transfers) from a borderline top 80 ranking all the way to a top 40 ranking. I believe Tech finished around the 37th best class for 2022. That’s the best class that Tech has seen in about a decade.

It’s safe to say that Coach McGuire has exceeded almost everyone’s expectations. He was hired with knowledge that he was well respected among Texas high school coaches and that he would most likely improve Tech’s recruiting. With just over a month on the job until the early signing period, if anyone told me that McGuire would improve the recruiting class ranking by about 40 spots, I would have appreciated their optimism but I would have shrugged it off as crazy fanatic talk. Not only that, but early returns on the 2023 signing class has Tech ranked in the top five and first in the Big 12. Maybe it’s not so hard to recruit to little ol’ Lubbock.

The Tech fanbase is unified right now like never before it seems. Even the later years of Mike Leach had some fracture because of his constant looking for other job opportunities. Coach McGuire hasn’t been a head coach before. He hasn’t coached a game at Tech or put together a Tech game plan. Ultimately, this hire will be judged by how his tenure ends more than how it began. We can’t crown him a champion yet. Make no mistake, I love how his tenure has begun.

As you can see in the graphic in the tweet above, it appears Tech is keeping the “Pump Jack Mentality” (PJM) that former Offensive Coordinator/ Interim Head Coach brought before the Iowa State game. I absolutely love it! I’ve even hinted of some type of pump jack model or décor for a Christmas gift that I could display in my office so that I can attempt to live up to the pump jack mentality myself. We need to be together in this as coaches, players, and fans. I’m doing my part.

I’ve already written a longer article than I intended but Coach McGuire brings that out in me. He has the fanbase excited. He has me excited. Ecstatic. L-I-T lit! For 2021, the hiring of Joey McGuire as the next head coach of the Texas Tech football program might end up being the signature moment of the year. Time will tell but fans are hopeful for the future. Hope has only been a dream in recent years, but it’s certainly back baby.

We take this moment to celebrate the hiring of Coach McGuire. We celebrate his passion, his charisma, and we absolutely celebrate his pet Charlie Dog. He seems to be exactly what we needed as a fanbase. We thank Coach McGuire for believing in Tech and we look forward to the future of Texas Tech football.

One final tweet of Charlie Dog and then I’ll stop typing.

This is the fifth of my 12 article series of great moments from Texas Tech during this year. The five golden rings article so it needed to be an important moment. These are in no particular order so it is not intended to be seen as a ranking. I just wanted to treat each moment as its own and give them their due respect. I hope you enjoy this series modeled in the spirit of the 12 days of Christmas.