Joey McGuire led the Red Raiders to the new heights not seen since the Mike Leach days. And now he's a Bear Bryant award finalist.
The Texas Tech Red Raiders had a breakout season in 2025 that saw head coach Joey McGuire lead his team to a Big 12 title and a berth in the College Football Playoff. As a result, McGuire has been named a finalist for the Bear Bryant National Coach of the Year Award.
The Red Raiders finished the 2025 season with a 12-2 record and a quarterfinal appearance in the playoffs against Oregon. The Ducks shutout Texas Tech 23-0.
The 2026 season will be McGuire’s fifth season in Lubbock and he has posted a 35-18 record with the Red Raiders. McGuire has built a staff and culture that could be the model for other programs to emulate.
The recruiting department looks like what you would find in an NFL front office. McGuire’s mandate to his general manager, James Blanchard, is to recruit the best high school athletes from the talent hotbed of Texas and develop them.
McGuire is a coaching legend in the State of Texas and is highly respected in the profession. He was inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor in 2020. In addition, McGuire is a member of the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame, inducted in 2022.
The success McGuire achieved at the high school level has served him well as he climbed the ladder in the collegiate coaching ranks. As the head coach for 14 seasons at Cedar Hill High School in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, McGuire coached up a losing program with the Longhorns and within four years, led Cedar Hill to a state championship in 2006. A winning foundation was now laid by McGuire, whose coaching record at Cedar Hill was 141-42.
Cedar Hill went on to make 12 playoff appearances, won seven district championships and three state titles in 2006 and back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014. That winning formula and knowledge of Texas high school football got him a collegiate coaching position at Baylor under Matt Rhule.
McGuire coached the Baylor defense ends and linebackers and turned that unit into one of the best in the FBS during his tenure in Waco.
This past season, McGuire’s Red Raiders defense ranked in the top ten in seven different categories: total defense, rushing defense, scoring defense, sacks, tackles for loss, interceptions and opponents’ third down conversion percentage. The defense was the strength of the team on their way to conference championship.
Going into the 2026 season, McGuire has successfully executed his roster retention plan to perfection. He will welcome back 14 players from his Big 12 title team, with half of that group having earned all-conference accolades.
With starters and key contributors from both sides of the ball returning, along with signing Brendan Sorsby, the No. 1 quarterback prospect in the transfer portal, McGuire has set himself and his team up more of the same success in 2026.