Long-distance love: Baylor Cupp and his fiancee make relationship work from afar
On Texas Tech football home game weekends, Carly Haack loads her white Range Rover Velar and makes the 350-mile drive to Lubbock from her hometown near Austin.
Last year, Haack had a seven-hour drive to see the Red Raiders and tight end Baylor Cupp in particular. The two have been a couple since their freshman year at Texas A&M and are engaged to be married next spring. They've had to maintain a long-distance relationship, however, since Cupp transferred to Texas Tech in June 2022.
"She was glad that it was in Texas and not somewhere further away," Cupp said. "With her being almost done with college, it just wasn't reasonable for her to come here as well, so we made it work and we saw each other when we could. She'd come up to the games and all that kind of stuff, so it wasn't too bad and now we've only got a few more months of that."
Haack graduated in May from Texas A&M and moved back to her hometown of Blanco, where she works in ranch real estate.
Cupp spent his first three years at Texas A&M, but injuries sidelined him for two full seasons. With a fresh start in mind, he joined the Red Raiders before last season. That could have tested a girlfriend's commitment, but not in this case.
"Honestly, I knew it was the best thing for him," Haack said. "I knew it was going to make him the happiest, so I wasn't worried about our relationship, he wasn't worried about our relationship, and I think it was the best thing for him and everyone else around him. So I was happy for him. I knew it wasn't going to affect us at all.
"It definitely was going to be a little crappy having to drive, at first, more than a couple of blocks from each other, but nothing too bad at all."
More: Good things: Tech looking to find tight ends more in 2023 season
Carly's faith makes her believe she and Cupp were destined to find each other one way or another. The circumstances of how they met, though, make one think they easily could have never crossed paths.
"Extremely random," Cupp said. "Extremely random."
It was the summer before Haack's senior year at Blanco High School. Cupp was going into his senior year at Brock. Both happened to be at Lake LBJ outside Austin — normal for Haack, less so for Cupp, who was there with friends.
"He visited them for the weekend," Haack said, "and I have a lake house at LBJ — my family does — so I go to that lake a lot, and it was just a random thing that they (Cupp's friends) were like, 'Do y'all want to come on the boat?' And I was like, sure. So yeah, it was all super random. Crazy how it happened."
The happily ever after part did not begin right away. They were missing a key ingredient: Someone bold enough to make the first move.
"I know I was (attracted)," Cupp said, "but I was shy. It wasn't like we just hit it off instantly. I think we were both shy people, and so I guess the mutual feelings were there, but we never really discussed that or talked much. We just kind of were around each other."
"I think he said hi, and that was about it," Haack said. "We didn't really start talking until college."
They reconnected at A&M and began dating in February 2020, Haack said. Six months before, in the Aggies' last preseason scrimmage before the 2019 season, Cupp got his leg twisted in a scrum while blocking. He suffered a dislocated ankle, and his lower left leg was fractured in eight places.
"He was in a boot from that injury when we started talking and dating," Haack said. "Honestly, it kind of gave him more free time, so it was great for the beginning of our relationship, I guess — obviously, not great for football, but it gave him a lot more time to go on dates and do things like that. I just really felt for him, because it was a hard thing to go through."
Though Cupp's career didn't take off with the Aggies, his and Carly's relationship blossomed, to the point they could live hours apart for more than a year and maintain their bond. Carly drives to Lubbock for all the Red Raiders' home games and to reasonably close road games such as the one Saturday at Baylor.
They took a trip to Costa Rica this summer.
They were engaged on July 3. They plan to marry on March 23 in Spring Branch, the Comal County city near San Antonio.
Then Carly Haack will take the alliterative name of Carly Cupp.
"He thinks it goes a lot better," she said, "than with my last name right now."
College football
Who: Texas Tech at Baylor
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: McLane Stadium, Waco
TV: ESPN2
Line: Texas Tech by 1. Over-under: 58 1/2 points.
Records: Texas Tech 2-3, 1-1 in the Big 12; Baylor 2-3, 1-1
Rankings: Both teams unranked.
Last game: Texas Tech 49, Houston 28; Baylor 36, Central Florida 35
Last meeting: Baylor 45, Texas Tech 17 last year in Lubbock.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football player Baylor Cupp, fiancee keep bond from afar
