A day after the Texas football team announced the kickoff time and television designation for its season opener against Texas State, a proposal was made that the Longhorns should play someone else on Sept. 5.
Joey McGuire, head coach of Texas Tech, declared during the Big 12 spring meetings on Thursday that his Red Raiders would be happy to host the Longhorns in a season-opening matchup. If the Longhorns did not want to make the trip to Lubbock, McGuire suggested Arlington’s AT&T Stadium as a possible location for a Texas-Texas Tech reunion.
While Texas Tech has scheduled Abilene Christian, an FCS program, for its first game, Texas is scheduled to open its season at home against Texas State. The buyout figures for Texas and Texas Tech to withdraw from those games were not immediately available, however the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal previously reported that Texas Tech was paying Abilene Christian $375,000 to play that game. McGuire stated that he spoke with the instructors at both Texas State and Abilene Christian about playing one another in the event that Texas wanted to play Texas Tech instead
McGuire stated that Abilene Christian will play Texas State and that he has spoken with both Keith Patterson (the coach of Abilene Christian) and G. J. Kinne (the coach of Texas State), and that they are ready to host our games. We’re going to use Abilene Christian to buy our deal. I’m sure they can purchase their contract out (with Texas State) because Texas has a lot of money. I am aware that there are many Red Raiders who will assist them in purchasing that contract if they don’t want to, and we can find out if their twos and threes can win this conference if they visit Lubbock in week one.
McGuire was replying to statements recently made by Texas coach Steve Sarkisian on Thursday. Sarkisian commented at a Houston luncheon earlier this month that there is a team in our state in another conference with a calendar that I would argue we could go undefeated if I played with our twos and threes, and they will likely make the CFP this year. Although Sarkisian didn’t specifically name Texas Tech, it was fair to suppose he was referring to the Red Raiders.
“I know he feels good about his team if he’s making those statements,” McGuire stated. Week one, in Lubbock, we would adore playing the University of Texas.
A request for comment from either Sarkisian or UT athletic director Chris Del Conte from the American-Statesman on Thursday was not immediately answered by a Texas spokesperson.
Would it be logical to restart a 73-game rivalry that ended in 2024 when Texas joined the SEC? It’s probably not the case for the Longhorns. Texas State, UTSA, and Ohio State, a perennial championship challenger, are among the three nonconference games on Texas’ schedule before the SEC begins. Texas Tech has also set Abilene Christian, Oregon State, and Sam Houston as its non-Big 12 opponents.
