Joey McGuire: Texas Tech ‘Truly Believes’ It Can Win Big 12 in 2023
Texas Tech had one heck of a season under Joey McGuire in Year 1, finishing with sole possession of fourth place in the Big 12 after an 8-5 finish.
It was the best season that the Red Raiders have had since 2013, and has given folks around Lubbock plenty to be excited about heading into 2023.
With several key pieces returning in 2023, including starting quarterback Tyler Shough, there’s a real belief that the Red Raiders could win their first Big 12 title in school history, and its first conference title since Spike Dykes’ 1994 squad won the Southwest Conference.
However, in that season, Texas A&M finished 7-0 in conference play but was not eligible for the SWC championship, allowing Texas Tech, 4-3 in conference play, to tie with five other teams for the regular season title.
If you are looking for the last time the Red Raiders won an outright conference title, you’d have to go all the way back to 1955, when Texas Tech won the Border Conference.
“If you’re in this building right now and you ask a player — and I’m sure you can say this about everywhere — but you look at our guys in the eye and you’ll feel that they truly believe that they can win the Big 12,” McGuire said on The Hard Count with JD PicKell. “It’s one of those deals of one reason is because we have so much experience back. Like I said, we got our fourth football school today, if you’re down there on the offense side of the ball, you’re gonna be like, these dudes are ready to go play a game right now. Just the speed and the grasp that they have of the offense. It’s a lot of fun to be in West Texas right now and we’ve got some fans that are pretty fired up.”
To win their way into the Big 12 Championship game, Texas Tech will likely need to cross the 10-win threshold for the first time since 2008. However, with Joey McGuire at the helm and the most momentum that this program has had in a while, that doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility.
Texas Tech will begin its 2023 season at Wyoming on September 2, with kick scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT on CBS.
