Recruiting West Texas: Texas Tech coach loves Pump Jack mindset

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>When Texas Tech hired Joey McGuire as its new head coach in November 2021, Red Raiders athletic director Kirby Hocutt cited McGuire's ‘significant ties throughout the state of Texas' as a major reason for bringing him to Lubbock.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>McGuire took the coaching reins days after the completion of the 2021 season and has quickly made Texas Tech a major presence on the recruiting scene in the Lone Star State.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Particularly, West Texas.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>McGuire quickly sought to keep the best local players at home, strategically making West Texas recruiting a high priority.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>So far, his efforts seem to paying dividends.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In the 2023 class, Texas Tech signed three players from Lubbock: ATH <strong>Marcus Ramon-Edwards</strong> (Trinity Christian), LB <strong>John Curry</strong> (Coronado) and OL <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='60865' first='Kaden' last='Carr']</strong> (Lubbock-Cooper). In addition, the Red Raiders signed WR <strong>Demarion Crest</strong> &nbsp;from Parkland High School in El Paso, four-star ATH <strong>Jmaury Davis</strong> from Clarendon and 6-foot-4, 240-pound DE <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='60876' first='Isaiah' last='Crawford']</strong> from Post.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“We're getting guys from good schools that have been coached at a high level,” McGuire told a Permian Basin TV station recently. “We're getting guys that love football. It's very important that we make sure we're doing a good job (in West Texas) of getting the guys that can play at this level and making them Red Raiders.”</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>For the 2024 class, McGuire has already secured commitments from 6-foot-6 Odessa High WR <strong>Ivan Carreon</strong>, OL <strong>Holton Hendrix</strong> from Lubbock-Cooper HS and OL <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='626922' first='Kasen' last='Long']</strong> from Shallowater.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>McGuire loves the physical brand of football favored in West Texas.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“There's a really tough brand of football being played in West Texas,” McGuire said. “It's the pump jack mentality. Pump jacks don't care if its cold or hot. A pump jack is the same every day. We know what we're getting when we recruit West Texas. We are getting passionate young men that have grown up watching Texas Tech and want to be part of this.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Texas Tech finished 8-5 in McGuire's first year in Lubbock, concluding the campaign with an emphatic 42-25 victory over Ole Miss in the Texas Bowl. It capped a hectic 12-month period for McGuire, who had to quickly put together a competitive recruiting class, hire assistant coaches, oversee winter workouts and prepare for spring practice immediately after being hired.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“We were trying to put a recruiting class together, trying to put a staff together, trying to organize everything we wanted to do,” McGuire told the Republic of Football podcast. “After that, we jumped right into spring football when we were installing a new offense and a new defense and a new culture.”</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://twitter.com/TexasTechFB/status/1638691439445000192","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"twitter","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/TexasTechFB/status/1638691439445000192 </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>             </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://twitter.com/TexasTechFB/status/1639701197757063170","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"twitter","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/TexasTechFB/status/1639701197757063170 </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://twitter.com/TexasTechFB/status/1639628212371329027","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"twitter","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/TexasTechFB/status/1639628212371329027 </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed -->