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Texas Tech football's Joey McGuire suggests spring practice vs. Texas A&M, Texas or OU
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- Texas Tech football's Joey McGuire suggests spring practice vs. Texas A&M, Texas or OU
Joey McGuire made it clear last week he's on board with Deion Sanders' push for college football teams to conduct off-season joint practices, or even a spring game, against other schools.
The Texas Tech football coach said the Red Raiders would be a willing dance partner with Colorado. And while we're on the subject, McGuire says the offer goes for traditional regional rivals, too.
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"I think it'd be good to have, at the very least, have a joint practice, whether it's (with) A&M or Texas or OU, whether we're traveling," McGuire said Wednesday.
"I heard (Oklahoma State coach) Mike Gundy talk about Bedlam (games against Oklahoma) and do it twice. I don't know if I want to do it twice — he had a great idea — but I do think you could do it every year, like if we went to College Station this year and they (Texas A&M) came to us next year and had a day where you had a couple of practices against each other, I think it'd be great."
More: Texas Tech football depth chart projection 2.0: What to know as spring practice begins
More: Howard Sampson sticks out: Takeaways from first day of Texas Tech football spring drills
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NCAA rules currently don't allow FBS teams to conduct spring practices or spring games against one another.
McGuire acknowledged, "This is something that's totally out of the box whenever it comes to college football, which, everything in college football the last couple of years has been out of the box."
Speaking Tuesday to local reporters in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Gundy pitched the idea of Oklahoma State and Oklahoma doing a home-and-home setup in spring football.
"Charge 25 bucks a head," Gundy said, according to The Oklahoman. "They can use it for NIL. We can use it for NIL.
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"If they don't want to do two in one year, we can do it here this year, do it there next year and split the gate."
McGuire said language to ensure player safety would be a must. No contact allowed on quarterbacks, for example, which is standard procedure for most teams during intrasquad drills. Joint workouts with another team, he suggested, could be "thud" practices, which involve contact without full, to-the-ground tackling.
The "thud" format also is what Gundy suggested. According to The Oklahoman's report, the Oklahoma State coach envisions a spring event with individual work, 7-on-7 passing, drills for linemen and a 30-minute period of team scrimmaging.
Texas Tech's head football coach Joey McGuire attends football practice, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023, at the Sports Performance Center.
McGuire said coaching staffs need to be on the same page.
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"I scrimmaged (former Ennis coach) Sam Harrell for seven years straight, and it's the best scrimmages I've ever been a part of," McGuire said, referring to his days as a high-school coach. "We knew what we wanted to get out of it. It was very controlled. We turned up the heat when we needed to.
"And then I've been in scrimmages, too, where like this is somebody's Super Bowl and it went over the top. You see some of that in the NFL with the fights and stuff like that. I think for us player safety has got to be in that waiver, but you've also got be really smart who you're going to scrimmage."
Responding last week on social media to Sanders' idea, McGuire suggested they seek a waiver from the NCAA and have their teams face each other at The Star in Frisco, the Dallas Cowboys ' facility.
Even if two programs could pull it off this year, Colorado appears further down the road with Syracuse in trying to get permission. Syracuse coach Fran Brown volunteered to take his team "to Boulder for 3 days". Syracuse.com reported Friday that compliance departments at both schools have filed paperwork with the NCAA and the Division I FBS Oversight Committee could rule during an April 10 teleconference.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football's Joey McGuire wants spring drills vs. A&M, UT, OU
