Joey McGuire says Texas is scared to play Texas Tech

Say what you will about Steve Sarkisian's implied shot across the bow at Texas Tech, but he didn't name names. 

“There’s a team in our state in another conference with a schedule that I would argue if I played with our twos and threes, we could go undefeated, and they’ll probably make the CFP this year,” Sarkisian said to a group of Longhorns fans last month. Was he talking about Texas Tech, Houston, or Sam Houston? Who's to say? (He was talking about Texas Tech.)

That comment made the Red Raiders go Red Rager, which head coach Joey McGuire and superbooster Cody Campbell calling Sarkisian's bluff, claiming they've arranged buyouts for the team's mutual Week 1 opponents and looked into scheduling a date at AT&T Stadium. 

But it didn't stop there. 

Speaking at a Red Raider fan event in San Antonio on Wednesday, McGuire said Texas Tech was on the verge of announcing a "major" non-conference opponent for 2027-28, and that it wouldn't be Texas "because they're scared."

For the record, Texas's non-conference schedule is orders of magnitude more difficult than Texas Tech's. Not only do the Longhorns bring Ohio State to Austin in Week 2, their lightest non-conference opponent (Texas State, No. 89) ranks ahead of Tech's toughest out-of-conference foe (Oregon State, No. 91) in Bill Connelly's SP+. Texas also plays the toughest overall schedule in the country in SP+'s estimation, and the Longhorns argue their SEC move was them running toward their second- and third-biggest historic rivals in Texas A&M and Arkansas, rather than running away from anyone in the Big 12, a league they won on their way out the door. 

Of course, strength of schedule metrics aren't really the conversation here. This is more about respect, the puff-your-chest-out-on-the-playground pride. Texas would have far more to lose and less to gain in playing Tech than vice versa, and the Red Raiders are playing upon that. A Texas grad could walk into the office the Monday morning after losing to Ohio State with his chest high; the Monday after a Tech loss would... not be the same. McGuire has also offered to take Notre Dame's place if Texas ends up dropping their 2028-29 home-and-home with the Irish, and Texas AD Chris Del Conte previously said UT would only play Tech (or any former Big 12 opponent) in Austin. 

In an interview that published Wednesday, McGuire pined for a Playoff game between his team and Sarkisian's. Had last season played out under a 24-team bracket, the Red Raiders would've hosted the winner of a Tulane-Texas game in Austin. 

Meanwhile, Texas and Texas Tech's rematch in the Women's College World Series Finals begins Wednesday night. 

For two schools that have no official plans to see each other on the gridiron at any point in the future, the Longhorns and Red Raiders are sure finding ways to run into each other quite a bit.