Report: Texas Tech Hiring Baylor AHC/OLB Coach Joey McGuire as New Head Coach

According to multiple online reports, including one from Max Olson at the Athletic confirming an earlier report from Lubbock Online, indicate that Baylor AHC Joey McGuire will be the new head coach at Texas Tech University. McGuire reportedly interviewed last Thursday before the TCU game and was chosen for the job from among a field of candidates that may or may not have included SMU’s Sonny Dykes, OU DC Alex Grinch, and UTSA’s Jeff Traylor before the best program called UT in the state locked him up a week ago.

This is one of those situations where the program hiring a coach should have absolutely no concerns about the person they are getting, but questions do exist about how he will fill the position. As of 2017, McGuire was a lifetime Texas HS football coach at Cedar Hill and elsewhere, then he joined Matt Rhule’s staff to help build the latter’s Texas ties. He was then a major candidate for our job that ultimately went to Aranda but stayed on under Aranda as the assistant-head coach and outside linebackers coach. He has never been a coordinator on either side at this level, so those hires will be critical. If I were a betting man, I would say expect to see former Tech great and current USC OC Graham Harrell in the mix as his OC, but I have no idea where he might go as DC. He’ll figure it out. He is universally revered as a person and player’s coach, and I have no doubt about his ability to run the program. Texas Tech fans are going to love him.

McGuire’s departure leaves a rather sizable hole in Baylor’s coaching staff and two major questions to be answered. First, when is he leaving? It wouldn’t matter too much except that we play Texas Tech the last game of the season, and I imagine he (McGuire) knows quite a bit about what we plan to do/might do in that game. That’s a problem. But he (McGuire) will likely want to get started in Lubbock as quickly as possible with the early signing day just a few weeks away. He needs to start recruiting now. So given all that and even with the concerns about playing Tech down the road, I would expect that he leaves Baylor now to assume that position, begin building his own staff, and start recruiting like crazy. The second question is where we go from here to fill that spot. McGuire was a relatively highly paid member of this staff (and rightfully so) but not an “Aranda guy” with whom he (Aranda) had previously worked. I would expect Aranda to target someone with tremendous recruiting credentials, defensive chops, and that needs a job to come over and join the staff. I can imagine there are a few such folks on that LSU staff right about now...

But for now it’s all congratulations, all the time to Coach McGuire. He came here with no connections to Baylor, bled green and gold for all of his time, and will now head to Lubbock to take over their program and give it everything he has. Texas Tech is lucky; they’re getting a great one.