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Another day, another coaching departure for the Washington State Cougars football team. This time, its the longest tenured coach other than Mike Leach leaving Pullman for a promotion.
Welcome back!#TexasTech has hired Clay McGuire as its new Co-Offensive Coordinator & running backs coach! #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/N0CAGPpuUj
— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) February 7, 2018
McGuire had been part of Leach’s original staff hires when he came to WSU in 2012. He’ll get a co-offensive coordinator tag in Lubbock and, along with the obvious promotion, he now gets to go back to a place where he actually played under Mike Leach before graduating in 2004.
With McGuire’s departure, the only person still on staff from when Leach was first hired at WSU is ... Mike Leach.
He’s also the fourth assistant coach to depart this offseason with defensive coordinator Alex Grinch (co-defensive coordinator/safeties with the Ohio State Buckeyes), outside linebackers coach Roy Manning (special teams coordinator with UCLA Bruins), and Jim Mastro (running backs coach/run game coordinator with the Oregon Ducks) all leaving Pullman. All of them took jobs you’d probably consider a promotion and they came with pay bumps as well.
We’ll see if Leach can replace McGuire with someone who is his equal in terms of coaching up for the offensive line but, suffice to say, he was, uh, not thrilled with McGuire leaving.
Leach on McGuire leaving for TT: "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."
— Theo Lawson (@TheoLawson_SR) February 7, 2018