Joey McGuire responds to Steve Sarkisian’s remarks about Texas Tech’s schedule, says Red Raiders want to play Longhorns
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Texas Tech last played Texas in 2023, their final Big 12 meeting before Texas moved to the SEC.
If Joey McGuire has his way, the next encounter between the two teams might not be too far off.
McGuire, during Big 12 spring meetings on Thursday, discussed comments made by Steve Sarkisian that Texas “would go undefeated” with its second- and third-string players if it played the Red Raiders’ 2026 schedule. To be fair, Texas Tech doesn’t exactly face a murderers’ row of opponents.
Either way, McGuire would like to face Texas. And he’d like it to happen in Week 1 on Sept. 5, the day Texas Tech is set to face Abilene Christian while Texas hosts Texas State. But McGuire said that he spoke to the head coaches of both Abilene Christian and Texas State to see if they’d play each other in favor of a Texas-Texas Tech opener, while taking a swipe at Sarkisian in the process.
RELATED: Underdog is legal in Texas! Get in on the DFS action today!
“We’ll buy our contract out with Abilene Christian. I’m sure, because Texas has got a lot of money, they can buy their contract out,” McGuire said, according to the Lubbock Avalance-Journal. “I do know there’s a lot of Red Raiders that will help them buy that contract out if they don’t want to, and they can come to Lubbock week one, and we can figure out if their twos and threes can win this conference.”
If not in Lubbock, then it potentially could be at AT&T Stadium:
McGuire said Texas Tech University System Board of Regents chairman Cody Campbell has reached out to Dallas Cowboys CEO and executive vice president Stephen Jones about the availability of AT&T Stadium in Arlington as a possible neutral site for a Tech-Texas game. That’s if the Longhorns don’t want to come to Lubbock, McGuire said.
For the record, the all-time series between the two teams has been all Texas. The Longhorns are 55-18 against the Red Raiders. Since the Red Raiders defeated the Longhorns in Lubbock in 2008 behind Michael Crabtree’s last-second touchdown catch, Texas has won 12 of the last 15 matchups.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
