Things are getting chippy down in the Lone Star State.
Earlier on Thursday, Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian took a shot across the bow at the Texas Tech Red Raiders, dogging them for their lack of strength of schedule, claiming that it isn’t hard to win and make it into the College Football Playoff with their docket of games.
“There’s a team in our state that plays in another conference that has a schedule that I would argue if I played with our twos and our threes, we could go undefeated, and they’ll probably make the CFP this year,” Sarkisian said of the Red Raiders.
Unsurprisingly, people in Lubbock have taken some offense to these comments.
Not long after Sarkisian’s words surfaced, Red Raiders’ general manager James Blanchard fired off his thoughts on X, saying, “Checks this past year’s NFL draft and laughs, checks this past year’s playoff bracket and laughs again..”
Of course, the Longhorns had six players selected in the 2026 NFL Draft, while the Red Raiders had nine players get their names called. Texas Tech was also a No. 4 seed in the 2025 College Football playoff, while the Longhorns did not make it into the postseason tournament.
Blanchard wasn’t the only Texas Tech member to respond, with noted booster and Chairman of the Board of Regents Cody Campbell also weighing in.
“Schedule us then! We’ve been talking about it for years and we are more than willing!!”
When stepping back and looking at things objectively, it’s hard to argue against Sarkisian about the Red Raiders’ schedule. Texas Tech is set to have its hardest games come against the Houston Cougars, Arizona State Sun Devils, Arizona Wildcats, and TCU Horned Frogs this year in the Big 12. Meanwhile, the Longhorns will play the Ohio State Buckeyes, Tennessee Volunteers, Oklahoma Sooners, Florida Gators, Ole Miss Rebels, LSU Tigers, and Texas A&M Aggies.
Of course, in an interstate grudge match like this, truth doesn’t matter as much as spicy words, so the arguing is likely to continue, no matter what is said.
This article originally appeared on Red Raiders Wire: Texas Tech GM James Blanchard claps back to Sark’s schedule comments
Reporting by Zachary Neel, Red Raiders Wire / Red Raiders Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
