MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Oregon's Dan Lanning and Texas Tech's Joey McGuire are not forgetting where they came from.
Long before they became big-time coaches making big-time salaries at big-time programs — Lanning and the Ducks will face off with McGuire and the Red Raiders in Thursday's College Football Playoff quarterfinals at the Orange Bowl — they were both high school coaches, just trying to do right by the kids on their teams.
Their worlds have changed. Their approaches have not. Both have guided their teams to 12-1 records this season entering the Orange Bowl. Thurday's winner moves on to the Peach Bowl on Jan. 9 for a CFP semifinal against either No. 1 Indiana or No. 9 Alabama.
''No matter if it's a 22-year-old or it's a 16-year-old that you're coaching, they're all the same,'' McGuire said. ''They're playing a kid's game that they absolutely love, and they want to do great things. I just try to help them do that.''
McGuire spent more than 20 years coaching high school ball in talent-rich Texas, before starting his college path as an assistant at Baylor in 2017. He's been the head coach at Texas Tech since 2022.
Lanning only worked at the high school level for three years before making the jump to college coaching — and had the likes of legendary and now-retired Alabama coach Nick Saban, Georgia coach Kirby Smart and Florida State coach Mike Norvell as mentors along the way.
But he has clear respect for McGuire's path.
''Joey's an outstanding coach,'' Lanning said. ''I always have an appreciation for a guy that's worked his way up through the ranks. ... I think the players take on the temperament of you as a coach. And he's a guy that brings the juice and you see that with his team. His team plays like that, plays like their hair is on fire.''
