A coach can’t control the questions he’s asked, but he can control the answers. At Big 12 media days, which began today, Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire was asked about his offseason back-and-forth with Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian.

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McGuire was again wanting to play the Longhorns, but he maintained a cordial demeanor in praising the work Sarkisian has done in his tenure in Austin.

Question: “I want to ask about some of the jabs from Steve Sarkisian, head coach of the Texas Longhorns, and how serious you were about getting that first game on the schedule and if we could see that in the future?”

McGuire: “Spot the ball, man. We’re ready to go right now. We’ll play tomorrow. We don’t need any film study or anything like that. I know they don’t either. They’ve got a great football team, one of the best teams in the country.

“I have a lot of respect for Sark. For people that have covered the University of Texas for a long time, what he’s been able to do to be successful and sustain success, it’s hard to do. Mack Brown was the last coach to be able to do what he’s doing. Before that — y’all would have to help me who was before that other than Darrell Royal that literally had the success Sark is having. I have a lot of respect for him. If you go back and look on record, I’ve said continuously I think he’s one of the best play-callers in the game today.

“Shoot, we were texting the other day. Jeff Traylor put me and Sark in a group text. There’s a Division I panel at the THSCA coaching school. He wants to sit between us. I told Jeff he’s going to have to step up in his sports coat game if he’s going to sit between me and Sark. Sark is probably going to have that burnt orange sports coat. I’m probably going to have this one or wear a red one.

“I want to play it. I’m a Texan. I was born in Texarkana, Texas in Wadley Regional Medical Center in 1971. I grew up in the Southwest Conference. Texas and Texas Tech are supposed to play. Texas and Texas A&M are supposed to play and they are playing. SMU is supposed to play. I’d love to play Rhett Lashlee. If you’re a Texan and you’re a fan of the football in this state, why would we go outside of the state to play non-conference games if we’re not in conference anymore because you have such good football in this state?

“I would love to play Texas, Texas A&M, SMU’s not in the conference, I would love to play those guys just because I think it’s great for the state of Texas. It’s great for the high school coaches and the high school players in the state of Texas. That might be one reason we have so many kids leaving the state, because we’re not playing each other anymore. I remember when I was a high school coach growing up through the system, you didn’t have as many kids leaving the state. Which was probably because the doors are open because we’re playing so many others out of conference instead of playing each other.”

Even though the public war of words drew burnt orange and scarlet battle lines between the two fan bases, McGuire said Sarkisian was one of the coaches who reached out to him with words of encouragement during the recent Brendan Sorsby saga.

Joey McGuire said Eric Morris texted a ‘wellness check’ and even Sark texted him and was like, ‘man, this is not in the head coach’s manual anywhere.’

— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) July 7, 2026

Sarkisian even spoke with admiration for McGuire during a June appearance on the Up and Adams show.

“Joey was great about it,” Sarkisian said. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from his response about changing our openers. How about we change our second game of the season and then we can have something to talk about?”

It appears as if the offseason war of words between the two schools never reached a heated level amongst the head coaches of the respective football programs. Despite McGuire’s wishes, Texas won’t play Texas Tech tomorrow nor in week one. The Longhorns are set to battle Texas State on September 5 at 2:30 p.m. to open the year.