ARLINGTON, Texas — Maybe it’s the age, or the injuries, but Texas Tech quarterback Tyler Shough has no problem calling out the way things were versus the things are.
He’s been in college since 2018, and in Lubbock since the start of 2021.
“Texas Tech, even when I got here, there was this sense of, ‘Oh, here we go again,’ ” Shough said Thursday at Big 12 Media Days.
The man who is from Arizona and played his first three years of college ball at the University of Oregon nailed the perception, and expectations, of Texas Tech football for about at least a decade.
“It was, ‘We don’t care about winning or losing, we just want to go party,’ ” he said. “That’s evident over all of college football, unless you are used to winning every single week, it’s frustrating.”
He unknowingly let out a secret about college football; a lot of teams are loaded with guys whose interest and intensity for the game quickly turns to pretty girls and parties the moment they know the season is gone.
In Lubbock, party time for a long time started in early October.
Given how Tech played last season in coach Joey McGuire’s first year in Lubbock, and what the team returns, there is no reason why the Red Raiders can’t be the “shock” team of the 2023 Big 12 season.
“I do think it’s a wide-open conference,” McGuire said Thursday, which is a nice way to say no one has a clue who is going to win. Or, in this case, it’s also a way to say that no one can trust Texas or Oklahoma to win the league.
“We have to handle the expectations that a lot of guys have not had before,” he said.
The only expectations Texas Tech football has generated for more than a decade is to be irrelevant. Patrick Mahomes changed that for about two years, but other than that the Red Raiders have done nothing.
Maybe an embarrassing headline or two from the athletic department, but for the most part Texas Tech has been a team that exists much like a West Texas armadillo. We always know they’re there. We just aren’t sure why.
Joey McGuire has given Texas Tech football a “Why” for the first time since Mike Leach.
The players all say they don’t listen to the outside conversation about their team, which is a lie. They know. They all know.
There is a difference between July of 2023 compared to July of 2022.
Texas Tech is coming off an 8-5 season in which it defeated both Texas and Oklahoma, and ended the year on a four-game winning streak that included a blowout win over Ole Miss in the Texas Bowl. It was Tech’s first eight-win season since 2013.
“There is internal energy now; there is more confidence and energy about what we can do,” Shough said. “It’s been a complete culture change because of Coach McGuire, and because of us. Just taking accountability. It’s something I’ve never seen before.”
If a head coach doesn’t have to police his roster, and his players do, the team is set for a good season.
Tech, and specifically athletic director Kirby Hocutt, need a good season. Morale on the Plains has been almost as high as a Labrador can fly.
Since Chris Beard bolted the men’s basketball program for Texas in the spring of 2021, Tech has had more unfortunate moments than good ones.
In late October of 2021, it fired Matt Wells as football coach. In March of 2023, it fired men’s basketball coach Mark Adams.
McGuire’s first year in Lubbock exceeded any plausible expectations. Tech finally looks like it has a guy who not only wants to be there, but knows what he’s doing.
Tommy Tuberville wanted to be in Lubbock almost as much as he wants to be in the U.S. Senate.
Kliff Kingsbury was a nostalgic pick to be Tech’s head coach, but it didn’t work.
Matt Wells is a good man, and he had no idea how to make it work in Lubbock.
Tech doesn’t want to be in the position to celebrate an eight-win season, but at least it’s finally something positive.
The Red Raiders return 18 starters, and two veteran quarterbacks.
Whether it’s Baylor, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, or TCU last season, the Big 12 of late has been run by the team no one saw coming.
Those teams are the model for Texas Tech. If they can do it ...
“It’s more internal energy that we are feeling,” Shough said. “We have talent, and we know we can be good. It’s more working to prove ourselves right.”
If he’s right, and Tech is good, the people partying in Lubbock in October will be the fans rather than the players.
