"Patrick Mahomes just absolutely loves Texas Tech" - Red Raiders HC Joey McGuire commends star alum while recalling an anecdote
On Tuesday, Texas Tech Red Raiders football coach Joey McGuire addressed his team's ambitions for the upcoming season during the Big 12 Media Day 1. He also had a special mention for three-time Super Bowl winner Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes recently partnered with Adidas to launch a 10-year apparel sponsorship for the Red Raiders.
When asked about Mahomes' relationship with Texas Tech, McGuire said:
“I don’t think anybody in here can come up with a guy at the level that he (Mahomes) is playing at. He is the best quarterback in the world, and doing what he’s doing whenever it comes to the university and he’s going to continue to do that.
"I always tell everybody, we were playing in Lawrence, Kansas last year, probably the majority of the NFL on their bye week are going somewhere to take a break and he’s on the sideline in Lawrence, Kansas watching us play the Jayhawks. The guy just absolutely loves Texas Tech."
Mahomes has facilitated a deal for the Red Raiders via Adidas. So McGuire's team will don three different uniforms in the opening weeks of the upcoming season.
Mahomes played three years of college football at Texas Tech from 2014 to 2016. The quarterback threw for 11,252 yards on 857 passes for 93 touchdowns with the Red Raiders before declaring for the 2017 NFL Draft.
After an impressive collegiate career, the Kansas City Chiefs selected Mahomes with the 10th pick at the draft. The signal-caller has become the greatest player to don the Chiefs jersey.
Joey McGuire hopes Texas Tech can get off to a strong start in 2024 college football season
Joey McGuire was hired as the coach of Texas Tech in November 2021. Under his leadership, the Red Raiders have had slow starts but eventually recovered toward the back end of the season.
McGuire addressed the issue Texas Tech have with their starts and explained how he plans to work on the problem.
“That’s the question that we’ve been searching throughout this offseason because we’ve played well at home and we’ve played well late," Joey McGuire said. "We’re 8-2 in November and December games, we’ve got to continue that because we got some really tough road games late this season."
"I think the biggest thing you can attribute it to being able to play and keep playing throughout the season is our culture. Now we have a really healthy locker room, our guys love each other and care for each other, will really step up and keep playing for each other.
"I think that’s the big part of it. To get to a fast start, the great thing is we’ve got five of our first seven games are in Lubbock, Texas, and everybody knows it is a really tough place to play in Jones AT&T Stadium. We’ve got a great opportunity to get started on a fast note. We need to do that this year to get going in the right direction.”
Across two seasons with the Red Raiders, McGuire has a 15–11 overall record. He has also won two bowl games.
Now, McGuire will aim to lead Texas Tech to a conference championship.