Joey McGuire could have opened his press conference with a rousing rant about how the fans stayed until the bitter end of Houston’s double-overtime loss. Instead, he made a comment about throwing bottles on the field.
“I love our culture,” McGuire said. “I love everything we do at Texas Tech.”
Well, not everything. He doesn’t like fans throwing bottles on the field. It’s interesting as McGuire praises and compliments Torla’s throw.
“The tortillas flying across the field make me burn,” McGuire said. But anything else, anytime after the opening kickoff, is off limits. It is not a difficult concept to understand for many, but for a few idiots, the concept can be thermonuclear fusion.
Don’t throw anything onto the field after your tortilla is gone at the opening kickoff. Don’t throw away the last seven dollars from your $10 beer, or even a second tortilla. Don’t make paper airplanes or throw water bottles on the playground.
“It’s important to preserve all of Texas Tech’s traditions,” McGuire said. “Throwing water and beer bottles is not part of our culture.”
Now McGuire is saying the exact same thing that it’s not a tradition, but how many times has it happened before it is. one? Because this is two years of bottle-throwing making news in Lubbock.
Of course, it is not the sacredness of cultures that McGuire is most concerned with. He cares about winning football games first, and a 15-yard penalty at key times because the bottle goes on the field would be the opposite of McGuire’s brand of programming. I’m not making any leaps in logic here either. McGuire himself said: “The worst thing that could happen is that we get punished for something like this.”
So fans have wanted Texas Tech to be good for over a decade. It’s happening before your eyes. The team is growing and improving. Grow and improve with them. Fill the stadium before the end of the 1st quarter. Stay until the end of the game. Sing the matador song. Clap along to the fight song. Throw in the tortilla at the beginning of the opening. Be wild and get in line; Just don’t cross it.
What is the line? Throwing bottles on the field is definitely one.
Another, McGuire says, is wasting your cold beer.
Bottom line: don’t be stupid.
The good news is that the retention of the student body against Houston was a big step in the right direction and those who stayed took the field. If McGuire and the Red Raiders hold up their end of the bargain to let the fans do it, the student body will look like 2008 again by the middle of next season.
Can’t wait.
Highlights: Texas Tech vs Murray State (September 3, 2022)
Check out our favorite photos from the Texas Tech Red Raiders season opener against the Murray State Racers by Lubbock photographer Paul Roberts.
