{"id":86422,"date":"2025-12-13T03:51:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T03:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/86422\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T03:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T03:51:07","slug":"joey-mcguire-reveals-how-texas-tech-created-real-brotherhood-on-team-full-of-transfers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/86422\/","title":{"rendered":"Joey McGuire reveals how Texas Tech created \u2018real brotherhood\u2019 on team full of transfers"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the modern era of college football with NIL and the transfer portal fundamentally altering the sport, Texas Tech<\/a>\u2019s rise to dominance is turning heads.<\/p>\n

The Red Raiders certainly aren\u2019t the first team to go all-in on the transfer portal with high-dollar, high-profile transfers. But that hasn\u2019t always translated to success on the field, as portal acquisitions can be volatile. Just ask Florida State and Mike Norvell, who have become portal-reliant and it\u2019s led to some volatile results for the Seminoles. After a 13-0 2023 season, FSU is just 7-17 over the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

So how did Texas Tech avoid a mercenary transfer culture and parlay its No. 1 transfer class into a 12-1 record, Big 12 title and College Football Playoff berth<\/a>?<\/p>\n

\u201cOne, I got really lucky because Behren Morton didn\u2019t go anywhere and Jacob Rodriguez didn\u2019t declare for the draft and Bryce Ramirez came back, just some old guys that have been with me for the last four years and some guys that have been with us for the last three years,\u201d head coach Joey McGuire said in an interview on 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM)<\/a>. \u201cThey were really intentional with the guys that we brought in. This is what Lubbock\u2019s about, this is what the building\u2019s about.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe brought some guys in that I knew were leaders from their other teams. So I wanted to make sure they understood they had a voice here. I think it all started with that. They really came together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas Tech brought in 21 transfers last offseason, many of which were star players at their previous school. Guys like David Bailey, Lee Hunter, Romello Height, Howard Sampson were able to bring their immense talent and leadership to create the backbone of the No. 4 team in the country.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Businessman<\/p>\n

That ability to bring transfers into the program culture starts with the guys you already have.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a lot of stuff from January up until camp started, we\u2019ll do some stuff next week whenever we practice and school\u2019s out, just to be around each other and continue to grow that chemistry,\u201d McGuire explained. \u201cBut it started a lot with the guys we had in the building, really trying to bring these guys into Lubbock and getting them to understand what it\u2019s all about to be a Red Raider.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty for McGuire to be proud of, from the program\u2019s first Big 12 Championship victory<\/a> to its first CFP berth. But that\u2019s not what McGuire is most proud of.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow much they care about each other,\u201d he explained. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this for 31 years, I\u2019ve been a part of some really special teams. These guys, this is a special team. There is a real brotherhood in this building. You can see that in how hard they play.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll take that brotherhood to the CFP on New Year\u2019s Day against the winner of Oregon-James Madison in the Orange Bowl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Texas Tech\u2019s Jacob Rodriguez wins Bednarik Award in latest honor for star LB<\/a>Full College Football Playoff guide: 12 teams, 11 games, one champion<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more college sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Find more Texas Tech coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the modern era of college football with NIL and the transfer portal fundamentally altering the sport, Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[732,3688,300,154,27,29,28,415],"class_list":{"0":"post-86422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-colleges","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news","15":"tag-texas-tech-red-raiders"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}