Opinion: Raiders must walk McGuire's big talk

Nothing like August for college football fans. Except for a few early starters, every team is undefeated.

The traditional good teams are going to reload. Those believed to be so-so just need a few kind bounces of the ball to win eight games. The also-rans, well, some teams are going to surprise this year – why not us?

Then there are the ones who had a breakthrough season in 2022, return almost a fully loaded roster to build on that, and just know they have left those losing ways behind. For those teams and their fans, August can be intoxicating, a time to puff out the chest and bend back the shoulders.

For that, I give you Texas Tech.

The Red Raiders are, to say the least, brimming with confidence. Low key? Not going to be anything quiet and calm leading into this season, not after an 8-5 record that included wins over Texas and Oklahoma in the same year for the first time, a bowl rout of an SEC team, and practically the entire offense back and six returnees on defense.

Joey McGuire, entering his second season as head coach, is doing an awfully poor job of containing himself. It actually started back in March at the beginning of spring practice.

The Raiders ended the season by scoring 51 against Oklahoma and 42 against Ole Miss. They averaged 461.4 yards and 34.2 points over 13 games.

“Last year’s team may not like me saying this,” McGuire told the media after an early practice, “but our offense is two touchdowns better than the one that played Ole Miss.”

Whoa, 14 points. He didn’t say Tech will be better on offense, or have a lot of returning experience and should be improved, but two touchdowns better. Put a number on it.

But take away the numbers of Donovan Smith, who would be third-string quarterback had he not transferred to Houston, and Tech returns 82% of its production from 2022. An experienced offensive line that had its issues is better with the return of injured guard Cole Spencer and center Rusty Staats, both transferers from Western Kentucky.

Maybe they are two touchdowns better. Maybe not. Maybe it’s accurate and maybe it’s off-season hyperbole.

Tech, for the first time in 15 years, generated off-season buzz nationally. Not like Texas and Texas A&M, where summertime hype is their birthright, but the Raiders have been a popular choice nationally as one of two teams in the Big 12 championship game.

That built to a local crescendo at the Red Raider Club Kickoff Luncheon in Lubbock on Aug. 23. These gatherings are part tent revivals to fire up the rank and file and open up the checkbooks. No one is interested in hearing about trying hard.

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark actually got the biggest notoriety when he talked about Tech’s meeting with Texas on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving: “Coach,” he said, “I’m not going to put any pressure on you but I’m going to be in Austin on Thanksgiving, and you better take care of business like you did right here in Lubbock last year.”

For outgoing Big 12 member Texas, that went over like a mouse in a punch bowl in Austin. Then McGuire got the mic. He alluded to the Brand, his mantra that Tech will be “the toughest, hardest-working, most competitive team.” It was the slogan within the Brand of “60 Minutes of Us.”

“I’ve had that slogan, but we weren’t ready for it,” he told the crowd of a conversation with defensive tackle Jaylon Hutchings. “We weren’t good enough to play ‘60 Minutes of Us.’ We’re there now. We’re going to play 60 minutes of the brand.”

But that was just the appetizer. So apparently too were saying they would go to Baylor and “beat the hell out of them,” – a team that won, 45-17, a year ago in Lubbock -- and calling Texas and Oklahoma “so-called bluebloods.”

It got to WWE wrestling levels when looking to the nationally televised opener on CBS Saturday at Wyoming and the rest of the season.

“The nation is going to get to see what we are all about,” he said. “We’re going to put the brand on display. We’re going to be the toughest, hardest-working, most competitive team and I can’t wait to play Wyoming because I want the rest of the nation to understand that they are on notice because the Red Raiders are ready to take control of this conference.”

Mercy, that makes quarterback Tyler Shough’s “I’m ready to beat their ass, honestly” answer about playing his former team, Oregon, in week two hardly worth mentioning.

There’s a couple of schools of thought. The old one believes that bravado stays in-house. It does a program no favors to give opponents a motivational edge. Ultimately, either walk the talk and look like a fool. McGuire put a bull’s-eye on his team.

The new school says, so what. If you believe it, say it. It gives a team confidence, fires up a fan base and that fiery bulletin board fodder leaves after the first big hit.

Not many are mentioning Tech was No. 93 last year in scoring defense, No. 103 in passing yards allowed, or won all four games decided by four points or fewer, including 3-0 in overtime.

Few seem to want to tap the brakes. At least not in August.

Jon Mark Beilue writes about regional sports for The Eastern New Mexico News.