Steve Sarkisian’s bold dismissal of Big 12 strength sparked a daring Week 1 challenge from Lubbock, igniting a high-stakes war of words and boosters' checkbooks.
"Clever''? Or "corny''?
How about a bit of both?
In fairness to the Texas Tech Red Raiders and their semi-empty "any time, anywhere'' challenge to play the Texas Longhorns, UT coach Steve Sarkisian is the one who started this.
“There’s a team in our state in another conference with a schedule that I would argue if I played with our 2's and 3's, we could go undefeated, and they’ll probably make the CFP this year,” Sarkisian recently.
There are some Orangebloods who are pretending that Coach Sark's remarks were innocuous because he didn't directly mention Tech.
But he didn't need to. The implication was obvious. So was the dig.
In response to that initial volley - which some observers, based on Sark's own claim might view his comments as "punching down'' - Texas Tech football Joey McGuire responded with an offer to the Longhorns. ...
Let's settle this by playing each other in Week 1.
“We’re willing to buy our contract out of ACU,” McGuire said, noting the fact that both Texas and Tech have Week 1 foes in place. “I’m sure because Texas has got a lot of money, they can buy their contract out, but I do know there’s a lot of Red Raiders that could help them buy that contract out if they don’t want to, and they can come to Lubbock in Week 1 and figure out if their 2's and 3's can win this conference.”
McGuire is dumb like a fox here.
He knows very well that in terms of strength of schedule, the Longhorns' is on a level far more challenging than the Red Raiders'. He also knows that as Tech would be the underdog here, he's doing the opposite of what Sark did.
The Red Raiders - no insult intended to them - are "punching up.''
There is virtually nothing for Tech to lose by playing such a game, and even less than nothing to lose by talking about something that isn't going to happen.
And they're still talking. ...
Texas Tech mega-booster Cody Campbell chipped in by saying he's pay for the Longhorns Week 1 buyout, and then word came down that Tech has been in contact with the Jerry Jones family about borrowing the Dallas Cowboys' home field at AT&T Stadium to stage this imaginary game.
Said McGuire: “I do know that Cody Campbell reached out to Stephen Jones, so if they don’t want to come to Lubbock, then we’re going to work on trying to get to AT&T Stadium. So if they want to play Week 1, we’re ready. We would love to play the University of Texas.”
The SEC is more challenging than the Big 12. That's indisputable. But beyond that? The fan bases (and even the media folks) from both Lubbock and Austin are getting their respective red and orange panties in a wad of defensiveness.
Texas, with nothing to gain, doesn't need to play this game this year. So it won't.
Texas Tech doesn't need it, either, and knows darn well it's "corny'' in the sense that it's not happening.
But the jousting back and forth?
It's stirred up the passion of folks who care about the high-profile Longhorns program and it's brought the spotlight to what Texas Tech is building.
And in that sense? Again, once you untwist your panties?
This rather unserious challenge is both "clever'' and "corny.''
