Don Williams: Credit Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire for doing his part to enliven Tech-UT
There's no bigger disconnect between Texas Tech athletics and Texas Tech fans than on the value of continuing to play age-old rivalries, even after the rivals leave the neighborhood.
When it comes to Texas Tech against Texas, you can present all the evidence you want that the series needs to continue after UT departs for the Southeastern Conference. For more than 50 years after Texas Tech began playing in the Southwest Conference (and then in the Big 12), the hottest football ticket in alternating seasons were the years Texas came to Lubbock and the years Texas A&M did. The exceptions to that, you can count on one hand.
Anecdotally, many Tech fans are happy to see Texas go elsewhere regardless. For the first three decades of their school's existence, Tech supporters fought relentlessly for an invitation to one of the best conferences. Now many are content to see the Red Raiders in a conference that will fight to be third best, never playing the rivalries that mean the most.
DeWitt Weaver and J. William Davis, central figures in Tech's fight for admission to the SWC, wouldn't recognize how attitudes have changed.
Joey McGuire gets it, fortunately.
More: How does Texas Tech football depth chart shape up for season opener? Now we know
How a conference came together: An oral history the Big 12's early years: With Texas Tech's Spike Dykes, John Montford, Gerald Myers and Bob Bockrath
Tech-Texas has been an annual thing McGuire's whole life, so now he doesn't mind throwing barbs toward the Forty Acres. Brett Yormark got most of the ink and airtime last week when the Big 12 commissioner told McGuire to "take care of business" when Tech plays Texas.
Yormark wasn't the only one talking, though. At the same event last Wednesday, McGuire referred to Texas and Oklahoma as "so-called bluebloods" and alluded to one being "really good in Olympic sports." On stage Saturday at another kickoff event, he referred to burnt orange as not "on the color wheel" and suggested he talked new Tech assistant Justin Johnson out of taking a job at UT.
"I definitely think it's good for college football," McGuire said Monday when asked about the ribbing. "It's one of those deals with us, we want to stay on the schedule and keep them on the schedule. We can alternate. I'm ready to get A&M on the schedule. ...
"I grew up in the Southwest Conference days where Texas Tech and A&M played every single year. I heard a story that R.C. Slocum didn't like coming to Lubbock because of the altitude. I don't know if that's true or not, but (Tech deputy athletics director) Jonathan Botros says it's true. I think it's great for college football. It's great for the state we live in, so I think a little bit of the back-and-forth is good."
Knowing McGuire, he's probably loving all the attention from this spectacle. As Texas Tech and Mississippi prepared last December at the Texas Bowl, McGuire acknowledged he lacked the personality to match Lane Kiffin. The Ole Miss coach can be a loose cannon. He's been a critic of the changes to college football, especially to name, image and likeness being used as a recruiting inducement.
Whether he agreed with Lane or disagreed with Lane, McGuire was all for Lane speaking his mind.
"I think he's great for college football," McGuire said. "I think there's so many people that take so many things too serious. There's a lot of angry people, for whatever reason, of 'This guy's saying this about this guy' or whatever's going on.
"He says what he says, and it's usually right on. He's usually speaking the truth. It's just a lot of people don't want to hear the truth whenever it comes to some of that stuff, whether it's the portal or NIL or anything like that. I love it, because he kind of keeps it all in perspective."
File the stuff Yormark and McGuire said last week under the category of good bull, as the Aggies say. Have a little harmless fun. Stoke interest.
"It's not saying anything against that football team or Sark (Steve Sarkisian)," McGuire said, "because I respect that football team and I respect him. Y'all remember last year, and I'll say it again: I think he's one of the best offensive minds in the country and they've got a really good offensive team, but I want to play them.
"I want to play them every year. I think it's good for recruiting. I think it's good for the state. There'll be a sellout crowd when we go to Austin and it was a sellout crowd when we played here, so I think it's good for football and good for our universities."
Texas Tech has a power-five opponent on non-conference schedules every year through 2031. After that, there are plenty of unfilled dates, and Kirby Hocutt has said he'll keep after rivals like Texas to fill their share.
Who doesn't want to hear Joey get the Horns worked up for another 10 or 20 years?
College football
Who: Texas Tech at Wyoming
When: 6:30 p.m. CDT Saturday
Where: War Memorial Stadium, Laramie, Wyoming
TV: CBS
Records in 2023: Texas Tech 8-5, 5-4 in the Big 12; Wyoming 7-6, 5-3 in the Mountain West
Rankings (AP/AFCA USA TODAY coaches poll): Texas Tech receiving votes/24; Wyoming unranked in both.
Line: Texas Tech by 14. Over-under: 52 points.
Game guarantee: Wyoming to pay Texas Tech $300,000.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire doing part to enliven rivalry
