Texas Tech chases consecutive ranked wins vs. NC State - The Dallas Morning News

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For a first-year college head coach, Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire sure seems to have an extraordinarily large circle of friends in the profession.

You can add the coach of this week’s opponent, Dave Doeren of North Carolina State, to the list. The meeting of the two unbeaten teams is set for Saturday in Raleigh, N.C.

Tech will be trying to post back-to-back wins over ranked teams for the first time since the pinnacle of the Mike Leach era in 2008, when the Red Raiders stunned No. 1 Texas and then downed No. 8 Oklahoma State.

The near 20-year relationship between McGuire and Doeren began in 2003 when McGuire was beginning his high school head coaching career at Cedar Hill. Doeren was an assistant at Kansas, recruiting one of McGuire’s top players, Marcus Herford.

“I got to know Joey very well, and he became a state championship coach there and then moved his way up in the profession [at Baylor],” Doeren said. “He’s done a great job as a college coach. I’m excited to see him get to be a head coach at Tech.”

If anything, McGuire may be ahead of schedule, even though Tech was coming off a 7-6 season and a bowl win. He already has a feel-good win over a ranked Houston team to his credit, one in which Tech converted an improbable fourth-and-20.

A win would make him just the fourth coach in Tech history to start 3-0, joining Dell Morgan (1941), Leach (2000) and Kliff Kingsbury (2013). The bond between McGuire and Doeren began over two Texas state traditions, chicken fried steak and Friday Night Lights.

“I remember eating pregame meal with his team. He had the best chicken fried steak and gravy that you’ve ever had before the game,” Doeren said. “I was crushing that with him. He’s a good dude, and he’ll have his team ready to play.”

It’s a mutual admiration society of coaching bros. McGuire calls Doeren one of his favorite people.

“He flew me out to Wisconsin, and I spoke at their clinic,” McGuire said. “We’ve kept in touch with each other. He’s one of the first people to text me whenever I got this job. I mean, just a class act.”

In some ways, Doeren is producing the kind of program that McGuire aspires to at Tech.

North Carolina State isn’t viewed as a traditional power in the ACC, unlike Clemson or even Florida State once upon a time. In his 10th season, Doeren has the Wolfpack ranked 16th in the country coming off a 9-3 season.

Doeren sees Tech as another program struggling for relevance in its region.

“Oftentimes some of the other teams in Texas maybe don’t get the notoriety of Texas and Texas A&M,” Doeren said, “and I think kids play with a chip on their shoulder there.”

A raucous sell-out crowd is expected at Carter-Finley Stadium for the game with NC State trying to extend an 11-game home winning streak. That will be a challenge for Tech sophomore quarterback Donovan Smith and an offensive line that struggled against Houston.

Wolfpack quarterback Devin Leary will test a Tech defense that ranks fourth in the Big 12 through two games, allowing 304.5 yards per game.

“This is going to be a great game for us again to see where we’re at and to keep growing as a team,” McGuire said.

Twitter: @ChuckCarltonDMN

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