LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – One day after coming home with the first Big 12 Title in program history, Texas Tech head football coach Joey McGuire says he’s now anxious for Tech to now play in a game he grew up watching- especially during an era when fewer teams were allowed to play in bowl games.
“Going back, you think about Penn State, Oklahoma (who played for the national title in 1986), but that’s just like when you go back to that stadium and just (think of) the iconic games that they’ve had in that stadium,” he said, while also referencing watching the time he saw Arkansas fall to No 3 Oklahoma on New Year’s Day in 1987.
“You sit there and you say, ‘Hey, Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl!’, and ‘Hey, Joey McGuire, you get to coach in the Orange Bowl!’ That’s pretty surreal.”
The inaugural Orange Bowl took place on Jan. 1, 1935 when Bucknell beat Miami 26-0. From 1954-94, the winner of the Big Eight Conference usually earned an automatic bid to play in Miami. On New Years’ Day 1996, the game broke tradition when Florida State beat Notre Dame 31-26. During that same period, the Big Eight welcomed Texas Tech, Baylor, Texas, and Texas A&M.
Coach McGuire says he was unsure of how this year’s top four rankings would be announced, especially with Indiana beating Ohio State 13-10 in the Big Ten Championship, and Georgia dominating Alabama 28-7 in the SEC title game. However, he says he just relieved that the Red Raiders retained their No. 4 ranking.
“As long as we’re in the top four, we felt good about that. It’s going to be really interesting. We have history with Oregon not too long ago, a really good Oregon team, and it was a great game here, going to Miami. If you would have told my 14, 15-year-old self that I’m going to get to coach in the Orange Bowl, he would say ‘That’s pretty dang cool!’, and what I’m saying is it’s pretty dang cool! I’m excited about that. Our guys are excited about it.”
While Tech and Oregon have much-different rosters from their previous showdown that took place in Lubbock back in September 2023, Coach McGuire says preparing for the Ducks will keep his staff and players busy throughout the holidays. They will also have a plan in place in case of an upset from the No. 12 James Madison Dukes.
“I have all respect in the world for any of the group of five teams and everything, but it’s going to take a lot (for James Madison) to beat Oregon at Oregon, so our prep will start right now on Oregon as a whole staff, and then we’ll have some of our student coaches and our GAs and QCs will be doing some work on JMU,” McGuire said. “But I mean, the reality, it’s going to be really tough. And JMU is a really good team, and their head coach (Bob Chesney) is an absolute stud. The other thing that comes into effect too, he’s trying to get ready for Oregon and he’s going to UCLA (a job he accepted Saturday).”
While the No. 4 Red Raiders (12-1, 9-1 Big 12) will prepare for both the Dukes and the Ducks, Coach McGuire says the upcoming workouts will not be near as intense since this extra time will give his players time to recover from the wear and tear from the previous three months.
“We’ve got to take advantage of it so this week, we’re going to lift and run so they won’t put the pads on, and if we did put the pads on, we’re kind of missing the point of the bye. We’ve got a chance to get some guys healthier, we came out of the game really healthy,” he said. “One of the big things, though, is we’re a really old team. We’ve got a lot of vets, and they are very serious about winning, in a few weeks and trying to make a run at this thing.”
The Orange Bowl kicks off 11 a.m. CT on Thursday, Jan. 1 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Fla. Be sure to follow KCBD for all of the coverage leading up to the game.
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