Months of sharp words between Texas and Texas Tech came to a close face to face. On July 19 at the THSCA convention, Steve Sarkisian draped an arm over Joey McGuire and let everyone there know things were fine between them. What began as a scheduling fight ended with a handshake and a smile.

“First and foremost, Joey and I [Sarkisian] are good. We’re sitting next to each other,” said the Texas head coach. He even put his arm around the Red Raiders head coach with a smile on his face, sitting among other FBS coaches present at the roundtable.

McGuire laughed and leaned in, making it clear there was no anger between them. A video posted by Houston Chronicle writer Joseph Duarte showed the two rivals putting the online drama behind them. For both, the battle would stay on the field, not in their friendship.

The trouble started in May, when Sarkisian, now in the SEC, suggested Texas Tech’s schedule was not strong enough. He was speaking about the Longhorns missing the playoff, but people across Texas knew which Big 12 team he had in mind. That small comment started the fire.

“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, as reported by Longhorns Wire.

Sarkisian did not have to say Texas Tech by name for people to understand. Once the clip spread online, McGuire responded quickly. He urged Texas to drop their Week 1 plans and face the Red Raiders, challenging the Longhorns to test their depth against his team in Lubbock.

McGuire took it a step further, saying Texas Tech would buy out its opener against Abilene Christian and even proposed Texas do the same with Texas State. Booster Cody Campbell supported the idea in public. Even then, Sarkisian was not finished. He had another line prepared that would raise the stakes.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from his [McGuire] response about changing our openers. How about we change our second game of the season, and maybe we’ve got something to talk about?” said Sarkisian in June. Even McGuire wasn’t stately calm when Texas was silent on the Week 1 offer; he made a bold comment, “It won’t be Texas because they’re scared.”

The focus then moved to the Brendan Sorsby gambling case. A Texas judge briefly allowed Sorsby to play in 2026, sparking strong criticism across college football. Sarkisian joked that if this kept up, Patrick Mahomes might be the quarterback for Texas Tech. Pressure on McGuire and the program built fast, and Sarkisian ended up surprising his rival.

Steve Sarkisian reached out to McGuire

For McGuire, the consequences were serious. Georgia, Nebraska, and Michigan moved to end ties with Texas Tech across several sports. The Big 12 looked into sanctions, and the quarterback eventually chose the NFL supplemental draft. McGuire later called it “really tough,” as NBC Sports’ Nicole Auerbach reported.

“Texas Tech has put themselves on an island because of the way that Cody Campbell’s handled the Sorsby thing, like the SEC and the Big Ten want absolutely nothing to do with Texas Tech,” Pete Thamel said on July 10.

Then came the surprise. Even after months of public jabs, an in-state rival stepped forward to back McGuire. Sarkisian ignored the online noise and contacted him directly when the Red Raiders’ coach needed support the most.

“Sark texted him and was like, ‘Man, this is not in the head coach’s manual anywhere,'” said Joey McGuire, as reported by NBC Sports’ Nicole Auerbach on July 7.

That text and the public handshake show what kind of person Sarkisian is. The coaches can still compete hard on the field, but off it, there is no bad blood. With his arm around McGuire, Sarkisian made it plain that the beef had ended.