Joey McGuire on Four Takeaways, Injuries in Colorado Win

Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire met with the media following the Red Raiders’ 29-7 win at Colorado, moving Texas Tech to 5-0 overall and 2-0 in Big 12 play. McGuire discussed the four forced turnovers, the impact of Terrance Carter Jr., how the late loss of Thomas Castellanos changed the game plan, and the injuries Texas Tech is carrying into its bye week. Finding a way to win McGuire opened by acknowledging the ugly moments while also praising the team’s ability to grind out the result and put it in the win column. “Some really ugly football at times. We talk about all the time of just trying to fix bad football, and it was throughout the game. I was really proud of this team.” “They marched down. I thought [Brennan] Marion did a great job, their offensive coordinator. I think we saw everything that you could possibly see on offense. They drove down and scored their first drive, and then we turned into bend but don’t break, and then we turned into taking the ball away. Then we created four turnovers. I think we dropped another three interceptions.” “But just finding a way to win the game. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to get better, we’re trying to start cleaner, we’re trying to do all that. But at the end of the day, the last thing I tell the coaches when we’re in our staff meetings on Saturday is whatever game it is, we adapt to that game and we find a way to win the game. And that’s what these guys have done. We’re sitting here 5-0 and we’re 2-0 in conference play.” Terrance Carter Jr.’s return + Howard Sampson leadership Terrance Carter Jr. returned from injury again tonight, and McGuire emphasized how much his presence means. “That was huge. That’s one thing whenever you have a really good tight end like Terrance, he becomes such a security blanket for the quarterback. He’s one of the best tight ends in the country. He came up big tonight. It was great to have him back because he also has great leadership.” McGuire singled out Howard Sampson as another leader who stood out. “One guy that really stood out tonight for me leadership-wise was Howard Sampson. There was no doubt some frustration and some panic early. And Howard just kept telling the guys, calm down, keep throwing body blows, it’s going to break. Just keep doing what we’re doing. I was really proud of him. And T.C. was right there with him.” How losing Castellanos and Dickey changed the plan With Thomas Castellanos now ineligible following Friday’s Kentucky court ruling, McGuire said it changed a lot, and the in-game loss of Cam Dickey compounded it. “It changes a lot. The two things that changed tonight, you lose all of the stuff that we’re going to do in the red zone, quarterback run game. Will [Hammond], whenever he takes off running, he’s either called his own number or he’s scrambling, which he’s done a great job the last few weeks.” “But you take out a lot of your run game, take out probably, let’s say we had six or five trick plays, you’re taking out four of the five. And then what really hurt tonight, especially in the two fourth downs, I think we’d get both of them if Cam Dickey‘s playing wildcat quarterback. You’re probably going there with Tommy, but whenever we didn’t have Tommy, then Cam‘s going to do it. And he ends up with an ankle injury. That hurt a bunch, losing him.” “I thought the other two running backs, Q [Quinten Joyner] and J’Koby [Williams], really picked it up. But that’s not what they do. They practice it, but not at the level that Tommy and Cam Dickey practice it at.” Settling down the defense McGuire said Colorado’s formations gave Texas Tech trouble early, but once the staff made its adjustments, the Red Raiders settled in and the pressure on quarterback Isaac Wilson started to take over. “It was kind of a mixture. Colorado did a really good job formationally, put us in situations, especially early. And once Shiel [Wood] and Rob [Greene] got the defense settled down and were able to talk through some adjustments, we started playing a little bit better. And then the pressure helped.” “We got some pressure on the quarterback. We didn’t get as many sacks, I think we only sacked him one time. But we did get a lot of pressure on him. And that allowed some of his angles to change to where the ball floated and we were able to pick it off.” McGuire also detailed what he and Shiel thought before John Curry‘s pick-six “John Curry did a great job on the pick-six in the end zone. Whenever you’re backed up, you’re going to get a hard count, you’re getting direct runs, or you’re getting sprint out. The quarterback is going to move the pocket. And the last thing that Shiel said to him was get ready for sprint out. And John was the edge of the defense. He was right there to make a huge play.” Brice Pollock’s impact McGuire was asked about Brice Pollock‘s response after last week’s frustrations and the way he changed the game tonight for the Red Raiders. “It was big, man. He’s been a little banged up, so I hate to just say he wasn’t playing great. But he was really frustrated last week. It was one of those deals that I thought Darcel [McBath] challenged him this week to really lock in. And he came up big tonight. Those turnovers just changed the game.” Take-three mentality With back-to-back games of getting at least three takeaways, McGuire reflected on how much the turnover emphasis and preparation has paid off for the defense. “That’s our goal. We always talk about take-three defense. I’ve coached for 32 years. I’ve only been in two games where a defense caused three turnovers and we lost those games. One was OU in 2019 and one was West Virginia in overtime in 2020.” “If you have a great opportunity to cause turnovers, your guys feed off of it. It’s one of the biggest momentum shifts there is.” Injuries heading into the bye McGuire said the timing of the bye week is ideal with several players banged up. “It’s huge. One, bye week’s always important because you’re always trying to work on things that you self-scout. But more than anything, this bye week is to get some guys healthy. We came into this game really healthy. And then we lose Tommy on Friday, so you count him as out. And then tonight, guys that left the game were Cam Dickey, Brenden Jordan and Donte Lee.” He gave an update on each. “Brenden was neck. He came down and hit his head hard on the turf. Donte was knee. We don’t know yet exactly. And then Cam Dickey was ankle. We did get X-rays because we were worried where the pain was. X-ray came back negative. So usually whenever you’re having an X-ray, you’re probably looking at a high ankle sprain, which it all depends on the guy. But it’s always hard playing a high ankle sprain with a running back.” McGuire was optimistic about Jordan. “I think Brenden will be back. He felt good afterward. We were really cautioned. Anytime you go head or neck, you’ve got to be really cautious with those guys.” Road victories are tough McGuire put the road victory in the context of how difficult winning in the Big 12 is. “It’s huge. I told those guys in there, we’re in Big 12 play, so you’re going to look up tomorrow and you’re going to have X amount of teams that are 2-0, X amount of teams that are 1-1, and X amount of teams that are 0-2. And then you look around the country and you think, man, that team’s really good. And then they go into a place and get their tails kicked. “There’s going to be teams that are sitting there going, man, we played so good. We were right there and we lost. We’re just trying to find a way to win and trying to find a way to respond. These guys play really well in the second half of games. They respond. We’re going to find ways to start. I didn’t think we started as bad as we have the first four games. Because we saw everything on that first drive by Colorado, I thought we really started okay. But just finding ways to start better. We’re going to respond. Whatever the game is, we’re going to try to find a way to win it.” Strides to make on offense Looking ahead to the tough stretch after the bye week, McGuire said the offense has to make improvements, and that it will. “We’ve got to really make some strides because we’re going to play Arizona State. They’re a really good football team. Cincinnati is a really good football team. They’re running the ball really well at a high level. Those are our next two games. So we’ve got to make some strides on the offensive side of the ball. And we will.” Join the conversation with other Red Raiders on the Inside The Double T forum. Subscribe today to get the most in-depth Texas Tech sports and recruiting coverage. Follow us on X: @RedRaiderSports Like and follow us on Instagram @rrs_rivals & like us on Facebook.