BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 7, 2026

Joey McGuire

Ford Center at The Star

Texas Tech Red Raiders

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll conclude today's main stage press conferences at the 2026 Monster Energy Big 12 Football Media Days with Texas head Coach Joey McGuire. Coach, we'll start with your opening statement.

JOEY McGUIRE: I know nobody believes this, but I am fired up to be here. I am excited to see you guys, just like every year. Every time I get to see you guys, that means we're one step closer to playing football. We're really excited.

Excited about the guys that I brought with me today. It was cool to see the preseason for the second year in a row, the Preseason Defensive Player of the Year is a Red Raider, and that's A.J. Holmes, our starting defensive tackle, Second Team All-American last year.

Brought Brice Pollock, our starting corner. Brought Sheridan Wilson, our starting center; Ben Roberts, our starting middle linebacker. We were able to bring Terrance Carter, our starting tight end; and Coy Eakin, our starting wide receiver.

It was really cool to see Ben and Sheridan go through this experience because they were mid-year freshmen my very first meeting whenever I got the job, the very first team meeting. It was fun to watch them come to this. I know they've had a great time.

Great to see our cheerleaders in Raider Red over there. Our media team is here. My chief of staff, Antonio Huffman. We're excited.

I know a lot of coaches have come up and said that, and we're really excited. We had a phenomenal year last year, and we're looking forward to kicking it off on September 5th. Looking forward to starting Big 12 play on week 3 against a great Houston team.

We feel like we're in a really good spot culturally and team-wise. Man, I just appreciate everybody being here, appreciate Jerry Jones hosting us.

I'm going to use Kalani's line. I'm excited for your questions, but if you don't have any, then I'm okay with that too. No, just kidding. With that, open it up for questions.

Q. Obviously there was a ton of commotion on the program this offseason with the national sports media, and obviously that has the opportunity to take away focus from your players. I'm just wondering, how were the guys, especially veterans like Ben Roberts and Sheridan Wilson, in redirecting the guys to focus on football?

JOEY McGUIRE: Yeah, I think, you know, one thing that I truly believe in is to bring a team together, shared success is part of it, but shared adversity brings you even closer.

The last couple of months we had gone through some adversity. I do believe if you walked into our building every single day and you walked into the weight room and the workouts or football school, you wouldn't know that anything was going on. A big part of that has been Ben and Sheridan.

We met multiple times, you know, with them being our two captains, and really I've talked through this with those guys and how they felt and what we wanted to do. They've been incredible.

I'm really fortunate. We've got a strong, really strong, leadership group: Cam Dickey, J'Koby Williams, Howard Sampson, guys like that. Just really strong people, and they kept us focused on football.

At no point did I feel, you know, over the last few months that anything is taken away from the football as far as in the building.

Q. Who are the underappreciated players that we're not talking about right now on offense and defense that we should be?

JOEY McGUIRE: I think Trey White and Adam Trick are two guys. You know, it was awesome to see Adam on the All-Big 12 Preseason team. Trey White and Simmons, they're the only two players -- I could get this stat wrong -- that have 28-plus tackles for loss and 19 sacks in the last two years. I don't know if enough people are talking about Trey White.

Adam. I don't know if enough people are talking about BJ Jordan. He's a guy that's going to benefit from the new rule, possibly having another year. He's played four years at Texas Tech.

So some guys like that I think you could talk about more because they had really good years last year, and they're going to have good years this year.

Q. Just what can you say to the quarterback room, the leadership that's come in there and what that competition looks like, what the fall looks like going into 2026?

JOEY McGUIRE: Yeah, really fortunate to have a guy like Will Hammond. If Will doesn't go down against Oklahoma State, we take a veteran quarterback, but we felt like we had our starting quarterback. I think with the amount of money that's being placed in these rosters, we felt like if there was any setback injury-wise, we couldn't take a chance that he's not going to be ready.

We've been fortunate, one, that he hasn't had any setbacks; and, two, if you ask Will Hammond throughout this process, he would tell you he was our starting quarterback and wasn't going to back away.

He's a unique individual. I think the one thing that I could say if you wanted to see what Will Hammond was, watch him come off the bench against Utah. And not the game that he played. I'm not talking about the play, but the way the players reacted when he came into that game, the belief and the love they for him. So we're fortunate to have him.

Then Kirk Francis and Lloyd Jones have had really good springs and really good summers. I feel good about that room. We just need to stay on track.

Where we're at right now, I could see Will Hammond starting the first game. We'll leave that up to the doctors and the medical staff, but he's in a really good spot.

Q. Last year your team was able to win the Big 12 Conference. What do you think the expectation is coming into the playoff this season?

JOEY McGUIRE: Win the Big 12 Conference. There's only been two teams in the history of this conference no matter who has been in the conference -- there's only been two teams that have won back-to-back Big 12 Championships. That's OU and Baylor shared, I believe, their conference titles.

We want to do something that very few teams have been able to do, and that's to win the Big 12 Championship again. You know, I think it's really important. I think it's really important that this conference gets multiple teams in the playoffs.

I think there's an obligation as programs in this conference that we play at a high level, and then I think it's really important that we win in the playoffs. Until we do that as a conference, then we're going to continue to have the same narrative that we have right now.

Q. Last year you described how close the group was as the closest team that you've ever coached. How is this team progressing and coming along this summer?

JOEY McGUIRE: I feel really good. The good thing is, we have 12 returning starters. We have guys like Coy Eakin who has been in that meeting room, knows nothing else but what we preach every single day. Ben Roberts. A guy like John Curry. Sheridan Wilson. Guys that the foundation of the program, these guys were recruited out of high school and have played for us at a high level.

I felt good that they're helping bring the team together. I do think that what we've gone through the last couple of months have brought us even closer.

Q. I understand all the reasons that Tech supported Brendan Sorsby the way they did, but did any of it come at a cost to your reputation or those things, or did you have to do any restoration in that regard?

JOEY McGUIRE: That's a great question, man. It's good to see you, too. It's tough. You know, the thing for me that through all of this, my president and my AD, who are good friends of mine, who believed in me, who hired me, they went through a lot. If you look as a whole, there were not a lot of coaches that said really a whole lot.

There were some funny jabs taken by some coaches, but there wasn't a lot of coaches that just really came out and said a lot of different things.

For my peers, I got a lot of support. Eric Morris, the first day any news broke, called me and said, Hey, man, I'm just doing a well check. He's a good friend of mine. Kalani, a great friend of mine, said the same thing. Kenny Dillingham made a joke in a group text and called me and said, You know I was kidding. I said, Kenny, dude, I get it, man.

For me, my peers, I had so much support from my peers. And it was tough to see Kirby and President Schovanec have to go through that. I hate that for them.

The thing that we really try to focus on is the Red Raiders and our alumni base and our boosters. That's who -- whenever I've talked to, answered any emails, texts, or anything like that, those are the ones that I concerned to make sure they understand where we were coming from.

Q. Amidst everything going on this offseason, how has Will Hammond been? You give him high praise. How has he been in terms of keeping his head down and staying ready for the right time, the right opportunity?

JOEY McGUIRE: Yeah, man, again, we're so fortunate. That young man, he's one of the guys -- he's one of the first two or three people in the building. He's one of the last ones to leave. Extremely hard worker.

He's got great confidence in himself, and he's prepared, prepared himself to be in the position he's in. He's got really an infectious personality that people just gravitate to. I think that's why there's a lot of confidence in Will.

Then the good thing is I think we have one of the top running back rooms in the country, if not the best. We have one of the top tight end rooms in the country. I think we've improved our offensive line. We've got a very deep wide receiver room.

You know, it's not all on him. He's going to have a lot of people around him to help him succeed.

Q. I want to ask about some of the jabs from Steve Sarkisian, Head Coach of Texas Longhorns, and how serious you were about getting that first game on the schedule and if we could see that in the future?

JOEY McGUIRE: Yeah, first, spike the ball, man. We're ready to go right now. We'll play tomorrow. We don't need any film study or anything like that, man. I know they don't either. They've got a great football team, one of the best teams in the country. They're going to be really good this year.

You know, the thing, I have a lot of respect for Sark. For people that have covered the University of Texas for a long time, what he's been able to do to be successful and sustain success, that is hard to do.

Mack Brown was the last coach to be able to do what he's doing. Before that, y'all would have to help me of who was before that, other than Darrell Royal, that literally had the success that Sark is having. I have a lot of respect for him.

If you go back and you look on record, I've said continuously I think he's one of the best play callers in the game today. Shoot, we were texting the other day. Jeff Traylor put me and Sark in a group text. There's a Division I panel at the THSCA Coaching School, and he wants to sit between us.

I told Jeff he's going to have to step up his sports coach game if he's going to sit between me and Sark. Sark is probably going to have on the burnt orange sports coat, and I'm going to wear this one or wear a red one.

I want to play him. I'm a Texan. I was born in Texarkana, Texas, in Wadley Regional Medical Center in 1971. I grew up in the Southwest Conference. Texas and Texas Tech are supposed to play. Texas and Texas A&M are supposed to play, and they are playing. SMU is supposed to play. I'd love to play Rhett Lashlee.

If you are a Texan, and you're a fan of the football in this state, then why would we go outside the state to play nonconference games and we're not in conference anymore because you have such good football in this state? So I would love to play Texas, Texas A&M. SMU is not in the conference. I would love to play those guys just because I think it's great for the state of Texas. It's great for the high school coaches and the high school players in the state of Texas.

That might be one reason that we have so many kids leaving the state is because we're not playing each other anymore. I remember whenever I was a high school coach growing up through the system that, you know, you didn't have as many kids leaving the state. Well, it's probably because the doors are open because we're playing so many other out of conference instead of playing each other.