The last two assistant coaches on Matt Rhule’s staff were introduced today. Tight Ends coach Bob Wager and Wide Receivers coach Garrett McGuire spoke to the media for the first time Thursday.
Wager led off the dual press conferences. Wager, an incredibly successful Texas high school football coach said he had previous opportunities to coach at the college level before, but the timing with his family and other factors were never right.
Wager called the opportunity to coach at Nebraska “different,” than those in the past. Wager said his family is older now, and his son Gage will walk onto the team this season. Wager also has great relationship with Rhule and a tremendous amount of respect for the University.
Wager formed his relationship with Rhule while Rhule was at Baylor. Arlington Martin Highschool, where Wager coached for over 20 seasons, was one of the first schools Rhule visited when he first started.
Wager said he paid close attention to Rhule when he was at Baylor and saw similarities in their coaching style.
“I Got an opportunity to take a step back to watch that program grow and develop,” Wager said “I have a tremendous amount of admiration for not only the development of the team and the individual athlete but also the approach that coach Rhule takes with the development of the human being,” Wager said “that’s right up my alley.”
Development on and off the field was a massive talking point for Wager. Wager said that his idea of player development goes beyond what happens on the football field
“I want them to have a chance to be the very best player they can possibly be but at the end of the day if all we teach is blocking and tackling, I think we’ve sold them short” Wager said “I want to teach them how to be a good dad, I want to teach them how to be a good husband, I want to teach how to be a great teammate and employee.”
Wager said that his meetings will always start with “human development” before player development. Wager mentioned that he’s already had some personal time with the players in the tight end room and is most excited about building “lifelong” relationships with them.
Wager said toward the end of the press conference that based on the history of coach Rhule and Offensive Coordinator Marcus Satterfield that he anticipates the Huskers will use multiple tight ends.
The young and energetic 23 year-old, Garrett McGuire followed Wager.
McGuire immediately said he was ecstatic to be back with the coaching staff that he followed from the Carolina Panthers after not being around them for over over 10 weeks.
Although a lot has been made about McGuire’s age, he gained a tremendous amount of experience from his last stop in Carolina serving as a coaching and offensive assistant for two seasons.
McGuire said while in Carolina he was around the “best of the best” naming DJ Moore, Baker Mayfield, and former high school football opponent Laviska Shenault Jr. as players he surrounded by.
McGuire has been around an impressive list of coaches in his career but the one he draws from the most is his father.
Garrett’s father is Joey McGuire, the head football coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Garrett said he talks to his father every night and constantly looking for advice
“I’m always trying to get his evaluation of me,” McGuire said he asks his father “Am I doing enough? Am I doing the right things?”
McGuire said he spent 18 years under the roof of the best coach that he knew and from a young age he knew he wanted to coach. Maguire mentioned that his father often tells him to not only get to know his players but their families as well. McGuire, following his dads advice, invites players to come to his office and hangout with him while he is working.
McGuire said that he wants the wide receivers to get one percent better everyday. He raved about the work ethic of the wideouts and wants to see it continue come spring practices.
“What’s cool about my room is that they’re hard workers and they’re competitive and you can see that on tape” McGuire said “that standard is already set for how they want to play, and you add our brand of football of being the toughest, hardest working, most competitive team in the country, that’s what I want to look like come April.”
McGuire said one guy he’s seen put in a lot of work is Virginia Transfer Billy Kemp.
“He’s (Kemp) setting the standard of the room of how we want to work whether that is mat drills, doing extra, doing the jugs,”
McGuire said the culture the wide receivers are building is based on work ethic.
McGuire said that he met Rhule when the head coach slept over at his house when he was coaching at Baylor with McGuire’s father. McGuire said he saw coach Rhule’s process as a coach and trust it after seeing it up close.
McGuire, who was born in 1999, does not have memories of Nebraska’s national championships like coaches on the staff have mentioned but said he always kept up with Nebraska football. His first memory of the Huskers is the 2009 Big 12 Championship, a place Nebraska fans would like to see a return to in the new league with a different result.