Reggie Pearson on culture change under Joey McGuire

Anytime there is a new head coach taking over a program, you are bound to hear plenty about new attitudes and a new culture.  But while that type of rhetoric is commonplace with regime changes, in 2022 it feels genuine when the Texas Tech football players talk about a new attitude under first-year head coach Joey McGuire.

Perhaps no player is better suited to discuss the culture of a football program than Red Raider safety Reggie Pearson.  After all, he began his career at Wisconsin, where the winning culture of the program has been ingrained for years, and now, he’s playing for his second head coach at Texas Tech.  Thus, he’s seen both sides of the culture spectrum.

On Friday, Pearson was interviewed at Texas Tech media day by Lubbock radio host Rob Breaux and he had some eye-opening things to say about the difference in the culture between the Matt Wells era and the start of the Joey McGuire era.  While talking about how at Wisconsin, the expectation was to win 10 games every year, he then discussed what the culture at Texas Tech was like when he arrived a year ago.

“Coming down here, when I first got here, it was a different atmosphere,” he said.  “It was super individualized and I don’t think they really understood, like, the hunger and the natural grit to win…Came down here and everyone’s, like, used to losing to certain teams and when we play certain teams, you see it, like, the fear and not wanting to play and stuff like that and I couldn’t really understand it.

“But now, thankfully that changed.  We do have the confidence.  We do have the mentality of winning every game this season.  And that’s one thing that I say that culture changed throughout my three years that I’ve played.”

What is telling about Pearson’s remarks is the insight he gave into the attitude of the Matt Wells era.  And he reveals that Wells failed to achieve one of his main goals.

From the moment Wells arrived, he began talking about having a “We, us, our” program.  That was one of the primary components of the culture he wanted to build.  However, according to Pearson, that never materialized, at least to the degree that Wells wanted, as Pearson felt that the program was “individualized” when he arrived.

But even more damning of Wells were Pearson’s comments that the program feared playing certain teams.  That’s never the attitude you want your program to have and it’s an indictment on the former head coach who never changed the direction of this program.

Now, in fairness, the losing mentality that dominated Texas Tech football for the last decade was in place long before anyone in West Texas ever heard of Matt Wells.  It began with Tommy Tuberville and then continued during the Kliff Kingsbury era.

Still, it was Wells’ job to try to change that attitude and he failed to do so.  In fact, he might have made it even worse than it was when he arrived being as he never won consecutive Big 12 games.

Thankfully, this program appears to be undergoing a culture makeover under McGuire.  Of course, that can all change once the team experiences its first bit of adversity with the new coaching staff.

But for Pearson to recognize the difference and feel that the tide has turned, at least when it comes to the team’s expectations and confidence, that’s a great sign and it’s a testament to how this current coaching staff has changed the attitude within the lockerroom.

That’s what Joey McGuire was brought here to do.  He’s not known as an Xs and Os guru or an elite tactician.  Rather, he’s got the reputation for being a motivator and a program builder and that’s what Texas Tech football desperately needs from its leader as the Red Raiders try to break out of a decade-long funk.

Hopefully, Pearson’s words are not just another example of the common talking points that we hear when a new coaching staff is in place and are more indicative of true change within the halls of the football building.  That’s because, more than anything, this program is in desperate need of a new attitude if a return to respectability is to be in the cards.