exas Tech and Colorado may be headed for another Big 12 fight, but the softest moment this week came off the field. Deion Sanders Jr. publicly thanked Joey McGuire for a gesture that stretched back years, long before the Texas Tech coach signed his $51.9 million extension.

“From Cedar Hill to Texas Tech – it’s a beautiful thing!” Deion Sanders Jr. posted on X, tagging Joey McGuire. “I asked Coach for help expanding; he told me I could come record at Texas Tech during spring workouts and etc… I never got around to it, but thank you for always looking out for me since I was 14.”

Joey McGuire wasn’t simply another coach offering a favor to Deion Sanders’ oldest son. He has known the Sanders family for well over a decade. Before he arrived in Lubbock, the 54-year-old coach built Cedar Hill High School into one of Texas’s powerhouse football programs during a remarkable 14-year run that produced three state championships. 

During that stretch, Joey McGuire coached Deion Sanders Jr. as a freshman in 2009 before he transferred schools. The football partnership lasted only one season, but the relationship never disappeared. Today, Bucky is best known as the driving force behind Well Off Media, the behind-the-scenes platform that has become almost inseparable from the Sanders family brand. 

It started as a YouTube channel where Deion Sanders Jr. filmed everyday life around his family. Now it’s much bigger than that. Well Off Media has grown into a major name in college football content. It’s no longer just practice clips and locker-room videos. The company has brought in more editors and videographers, landed a partnership with Nike, and is steadily pushing into bigger projects across the sports world.

As those ambitions grew, Deion Sanders Jr. reached out to Joey McGuire looking for opportunities to create more content. The coach welcomed him with open arms. And even though the visit never happened, the 32-year-old clearly hasn’t forgotten the offer.

The connection also mirrors the friendship between the two head coaches. When Colorado and Texas Tech met in 2024, there wasn’t much bad blood between the men on the sidelines. In the days before kickoff, both Deion Sanders and Joey McGuire spoke highly of one another. Then, right before the game started, Sanders walked over, bent down in an exaggerated bow toward McGuire, and got everyone talking. 

Not long after, Deion Sanders described McGuire as “a tremendous friend.” He said the Texas Tech coach had stepped in over the years, helping line up 7-on-7 games whenever his teams were running out of opponents. He also praised him for the countless players he helped reach college during his Cedar Hill years.

“I don’t know how many young men that he’s responsible for getting and assisting them to get to college from the team that he had at Cedar Hill,” he recalled. “I was over there. Got to know him because my son, Bucky, played in his organization, and just a pillar of consistency, commitment, and he was a dog.”

Conference rivals will continue battling every autumn. Off the field, though, the Sanders family and Joey McGuire continue to show that some relationships outlast scoreboards and conference standings.