Sometimes in college football, the funniest stories don’t come from the field. They come from the flight before it. And this week in Lubbock, before undefeated BYU rolls into town for a top-10 showdown, an old tale is stealing the early headlines. Texas Tech is 8–1 after flattening Kansas State 43–20. The Red Raiders are rolling, College GameDay is rolling into Lubbock, and ESPN’s A-team Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler will be on the call. Everything’s bigger in Texas this week. And apparently, that includes the laughs too.

In a 4th November tweet that set the tone for GameDay week, Texas Tech insider Nathan Giese wrote, “Yesterday Joey McGuire said there’s a good story about @KirkHerbstreit’s dad calling him an “arrogant Texan” then said it was Kenny Perry’s fault. So Perry explains what happened.” Turns out, the “fault” was as Texas as it gets. Kenny Perry, Joey McGuire’s longtime friend and current associate HC, recounted the day ESPN’s Herbstreit Classic moved from Ohio to Texas years ago. The network had invited the two loud, proud Texas boys to a press conference in Cincinnati. And that’s where things got hilariously off-script.

“Well, ESPN was moving the Herbstreit Classic, they wanted to go to Texas,” Kenny Perry recounted. “Unbeknownst to them, they got two of the biggest smart asses, I think, in Texas. They go to a press conference in Cincinnati, and me and Joe were flying there… Joey looked out the window, and he said, ‘yeah, I didn’t know they played football in Ohio.’” It was then that Jim Herbstreit, Kirk Herbstreit’s late father and a former Ohio State captain under Woody Hayes, entered the scene. “Well, then Herbstreit’s dad, he had kind of a laugh, and he just said the same thing,” he added. “He goes, ‘I knew when we invited some Texas coaches here, there’d be a smart ass in the bunch.’ So it was good, we both won, we both got after them, so it was worth it. We had a lot of fun.”

It’s classic Texas Tech energy. Bold, brash, and delivered with a grin. But behind the humor sits a level of mutual respect. Jim Herbstreit wasn’t just Kirk Herbstreit’s dad. He was a Buckeye captain, an assistant under Woody Hayes, and later coached under Bo Schembechler at Miami (Ohio). The legend passed away at 77 in 2016. Kirk still honors him often, most recently on what would’ve been his 86th birthday in February, posting: “Happy Birthday, Dad. We miss you. 🙏🏼” And now, his legacy drifts right back into a Texas storyline because that’s just how college football works.

Kirk Herbstreit and Gameday comes to Lubbock 

As if the nostalgia wasn’t enough, ESPN’s top crew returns to call BYU-Texas Tech, the biggest Big 12 clash in years. The Cougars are undefeated, the Red Raiders are surging, and the Playoff Committee will have eyes glued to Jones AT&T Stadium. BYU has made a habit of surviving tight games behind freshman QB Bear Bachmeier, whose blend of power and poise has shocked the league. Joey McGuire knows what’s coming. “You don’t see a true freshman play at the level that this quarterback is playing at. He’s got a big arm, can make all the throws, but he’s also a huge load when you’re trying to tackle him. I think he’s 6’2, 230, runs the ball well,” he said.

But Texas Tech’s confidence is as high as their offense is balanced. With Tahj Brooks running wild, Caleb Douglas torching corners, and a defense that’s been quietly elite, Joey McGuire’s squad looks like a team that’s built for December football. “We have a lot of leaders, every single room has a true leader,” the HC said. This week marks the first top-10 matchup between Big 12 teams since 2021 and the first BYU top-10 clash ever and Kirk Herbstreit will be there to call it.