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Washington State offensive line coach Clay McGuire accepts position at Texas Tech

Washington State Cougars head coach Mike Leach watches from the sidelines as his team battles Colorado during the first half of a college football game on Saturday, October 21, 2017, at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Wash. Tyler Tjomsland/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW (Tyler Tjomsland / The Spokesman-Review)
By Theo Lawson theol@spokesman.com(509) 459-5584

PULLMAN – Washington State offensive line coach Clay McGuire has accepted a position to coach the running backs at his alma mater, Texas Tech, the Red Raiders announced Wednesday afternoon.

The news was first reported by FootballScoop.com and later by Bruce Feldman of Sports Illustrated.

McGuire has spent the last six years coaching the offensive line at WSU and has worked under Cougars coach Mike Leach for the last 10 years, spending four seasons as the Red Raiders’ running backs coach.

And McGuire’s time with Leach dates futher back than that. The former collegiate fullback played for Leach’s Red Raider teams in the early 2000’s and will join Kliff Kingsbury’s staff in Lubbock. McGuire and Kingsbury played together at Texas Tech from 2000-2004.

Commenting on McGuire’s departure, Leach said “He’s got to sort that himself. He has to figure out if that’s a good decision. From his standpoint, he’s going back home, but then also they’re on thin ice around there & if you fall through the ice then you’re leaving home pretty quick, too, probably.”

The WSU coach added: “I wish him the best of luck.”

McGuire was the last remaining member of Leach’s original staff at WSU and becomes the fourth assistant to leave the Cougars this offseason. The exodus began with defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, who returned home to become a co-defensive coordinator at Ohio State under Urban Meyer. Outside linebackers coach Roy Manning then left to become the outside linebackers/special teams coach at UCLA and running backs Jim Mastro followed him out the door, accepting a position to be the RB coach/run game coordinator at Oregon.

WSU’s O-line was in dire need of a makeover when Leach arrived in Pullman and McGuire helped him complete that mission, recruiting and developing future NFL Draft pick Joe Dahl –now with the Detroit Lions – along with 2017 seniors Cole Madison and Cody O’Connell. O’Connell is a two-time All-American and Madison was recently invited to the 2018 NFL Scouting Combine.

After hiring new defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys, defensive backs coach Kendrick Shaver and promoting Darcel McBath from defensive quality control to defensive assistant, Leach is still expected to make two more additions to fill the spots previously held by Mastro and McGuire.