Steven Sipple: ‘Big McGuire’ and ‘Baby McGuire’ compete hard on recruiting trail, and sometimes it means going after same players
Perhaps Nebraska football fans notice that right now there are multiple recruits who have NU and Texas Tech high on their lists of possible college destinations, which creates an intriguing dynamic: Husker assistant coach Garret McGuire is recruiting against his father, Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire.
“They call them Big McGuire and Baby McGuire,” says Malik Esquerra, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound safety from Killeen (Shoemaker), Texas, who’s being recruited by both schools. “The first time I met both of them, they said the exact words to me: ‘I didn’t think you were that ugly in real life.’ Word for word, that’s exactly what they said.
“So I’m guessing Baby McGuire is stealing some of his dad’s jokes.”
That may or may not be the case — it might just be the other way around — but they definitely recruit against each other, and it apparently gets hot on occasion.
“Oh, my gosh, it gets so competitive,” says Garret McGuire, Nebraska’s 24-year-old wide receivers coach who grew up in Texas and has many ties there. “He’s got an official visitor this weekend who came and visited us this past weekend, and I ain’t telling him (his dad) any of my secrets on him.”
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Garret McGuire: ‘We go after the same kids’
With new Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule’s staff recruiting extensively in the state of Texas — for instance, four of Nebraska’s eight verbal commitments in the class of 2024 are from the Lone Star State — expect the McGuire versus McGuire battles to continues.
Granted, they’re obviously not typically pure one-on-one battles, but it almost feels that way listening to Garret McGuire discuss the dynamic.
“We recruit the same way when it comes to height, weight, speed, developmental traits,” the younger McGuire says. “We’re going to end up going after the same kids. We don’t chase star ratings, we chase developmental traits that we can turn into a good football player.”
That might mean paying extra-close attention to players who compete well in track and field as well as those who possess good length — tall players with long arms, for instance.
“Texas Tech does it the same way,” Garret McGuire says. “We have similar methods, a similar process.”
So, game on.
“We’re both competitive guys,” the younger McGuire says. “Obviously, there’s nothing I can say bad about him, and surely there’s nothing he can say bad about me. Bottom line, we just try to find the right fit for the players whether it’s in Lubbock or Lincoln.
“But when it comes to the school and what we do and how we prepare a kid, it’s pretty much the same. So, it’s like, ‘What’s your fit?’ It usually doesn’t come down to, ‘Hey, we’ve got this, and they don’t.’ We do things pretty much the same way, so it’s not like we can bad-mouth each other.”
The elder McGuire experiences quick success at Tech
Perhaps you’ve seen Joey McGuire’s spirited postgame speech to his players early last season after Texas Tech defeated Texas 37-34 in Lubbock. You can find it on YouTube. In his first season at Tech, the Red Raiders finished 8-5 overall, including 5-4 in the Big 12 (fourth).
“I’m tellin’ y’all right now, the country’s going to find out that everything runs through Lubbock!” McGuire shouted as his players whooped and hollered.
If senior quarterback Tyler Shough stays healthy, Texas Tech can be legitimately considered a dark-horse candidate to win the Big 12, according to Lindy’s college football preview magazine.
The elder McGuire’s Texas ties are deep. A 13-year run as head coach at Cedar Hill High School outside Dallas brought 141 wins and three state titles. He was hired as tight ends coach at Baylor in 2017, Rhule’s first season at the school. McGuire was promoted to associate head coach in 2019 when the Bears finished 11-3. He served as the program’s interim head coach when Rhule left to accept the Carolina Panthers’ head-coaching position in 2020.
Now, the elder McGuire has the fan base excited in Lubbock.
“He’s doing a really, really good job and he does it the right way,” the younger McGuire says. “He just cares about the players so much and they play so hard for him. It’s kind of what we’re trying to do here (in Lincoln).”
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Recruits eyeing both Texas Tech and Nebraska
In addition to Esquerra — the rangy safety from Killeen — Nebraska and Texas Tech are high on the list of possible destinations for some key players from the Lone Star State in the class of 2024.
Peyton Morgan, a four-star safety from Pflugerville, visited Nebraska’s campus last weekend but is considered a lean toward Tech. Dontae Carter, a three-star safety from Cibolo, seemingly has Nebraska and Texas Tech neck and neck in his decision-making process. Carter also visited Nebraska last weekend, as did defensive lineman Carlon Jones of Bay City, who also has both schools high on his list.
I’ve been to Lubbock several times and it reminds me a bit of Lincoln, if only because they have similar populations — Lubbock has 261,000 people, and Lincoln 293,000.
“We’ve had kids say that to us, and we had parents say that to us this past weekend that have visited both places,” Garret McGuire says. “There’s a similar feel, a similar fan base. I think ours is obviously a little bit bigger. I’m biased so I think it’s a little bit better partly because it’s a one-school state.
“Everyone in Lincoln is Big Red, and everyone in Lubbock is about ‘Wreck ’em.’”
If you happen to watch the video of the 51-year-old McGuire’s locker-room speech, you can close your eyes and imagine Garret making the same sort of speech. Garret obviously has a lot of his father’s speech patterns and mannerisms.
“It’s funny; we had an opportunity in May to spend a few nights together,” Garret says. “He was in Dallas when I was recruiting Dallas so we met up late at night when I was at my grandma’s house. I was making recruiting calls and had kids calling me.
“It was a cool experience because he was listening to me talk to the kids and the parents. It was almost like after the phone call, he was coaching me on what to say, on what I could say, or what I said that he really liked. He told me that he could tell how comfortable I was with the players.
“It’s a great learning experience because he’s seen that side more than me.”
The elder McGuire surely is immensely proud of his son.
Rest assured, he’ll still work hard to beat Nebraska (and his son) for players.
The post Steven Sipple: ‘Big McGuire’ and ‘Baby McGuire’ compete hard on recruiting trail, and sometimes it means going after same players appeared first on On3.
