Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire has had a great time in Lubbock so far. However, greatness is never a solo effort, and McGuire does have a good understanding of this concept. As he spoke about the major contributors to his successful coaching career, the 55-year-old credited Nebraska Huskers’ head coach, Matt Rhule.

“[I] got really fortunate to meet another Penn State guy, Matt Rhule. He hired me at Baylor,” McGuire said on the National Football Foundation YouTube channel. “I got to meet him for a short period whenever he was at Temple. And then [I] just was fascinated. I mean, he’s a great speaker. So, you can listen to him and the passion with which he speaks.”

The relationship between McGuire and Matt Rhule did not need years to thrive. The pair clicked immediately. Rhule hired him as the tight ends coach for the Baylor Bears in 2017, before he was promoted to associate head coach in 2019. Ultimately, he briefly replaced Rhule and served as the interim head coach when Rhule took a coaching role with the Carolina Panthers in 2020.

“He interviewed me at an IHOP in Hillsborough, Texas, and we were so similar about what we believe. And the biggest similarity was how we could grow people using football as the vehicle, and that’s just what attracted me to him. I always tell everybody that if I hadn’t gone to Baylor with him, I wouldn’t be sitting in the seat I’m in because he really, truly saw something in me early on in our relationship to help me become a coach at the college level. We’re really close. He’s probably the guy that I talked to the most in this world, on a weekly basis.”

In his first year in 2021, McGuire led the Red Raiders to their first winning season since 2009. Having just completed his fourth season, he led them to an 11-1 regular-season record in 2025 and to the top of the Big 12 standings. The Conference Championship win against the BYU Cougars was their first-ever Big 12 title and first outright conference championship since 1955. 

McGuire has enjoyed such a great time with the Red Raiders that one would wonder if Matt Rhule’s impact on him was all he needed to exhibit such brilliance. Unsurprisingly, there are a few more contributors who have helped in making him the dominant Joey McGuire he is today.

His high school position coach, Harris Brownley, and fellow coach Tom McCome made an impact on him early on; he referred to them as “the guys that impacted me so much that made me want to be a coach.” He also mentioned legendary Texas High School football coach D.W. Rutledge as one of his mentors, whose philosophies have become a part of him. But then, there was also Dennis Harris, “a great mentor” to McGuire.

“My second year of coaching, I had a great mentor, Dennis Harris. I simply asked about one play, and he put together a booklet for me on it, and I said, ‘Coach, I just thought we were going to get on the whiteboard.’ And he said, ‘I’ve been coaching for 40 years, and I’m going to give back to this game and I ask you to do the same’. And I was 25 years old when he was telling me that, and I try to do the same thing every day.”

While McGuire credits these mentors for his coaching philosophy, that philosophy recently came under fire after a controversial training video surfaced.

Joey McGuire responds to training controversy

Coach Joey McGuire and the Texas Tech Red Raiders made headlines after a video of their training facility, made by college football commentator Adam Breneman, raised some concerns. Breneman’s video, while capturing a section of their facility, showed no dumbbells less than 40 pounds. To make matters worse, Raiders’ OL Sheridan Wilson explained how a 40-pound dumbbell was the limit for even “light side raises.”

Critics, spearheaded by Houston Texans legend J.J. Watt, found fault with the Raiders’ training system, citing sound athletic reasons why such a system does more harm than good.

“Hopefully, just performative for social media and not actually true. Would be wildly absurd and irresponsible,” Watt posted. “Also, jumping straight to 40 pounds would literally be a shortcut. So “no shortcuts” doesn’t really apply.”

McGuire responded to the call-outs. The reality is different from what the video portrayed.

Speaking to RedRaiderRoundtable.com, he said, “The 40-pound dumbbell thing ended up being pretty funny; look how many comments Adam got on the story! But the truth is this: We have 5-pound to 35-pound dumbbells in our building, too; we just don’t have them in that particular area.”