Texas Tech booster claps back at Steve Sarkisian after Texas coach takes a shot at Red Raiders

It’s a great week for SEC coaches.

First, new LSU head coach Lane Kiffin talked about the supposed difficulty of the SEC’s schedules, then boasted that their easy non-conference schedule had given him 20 free wins in five years. Incredibly, Kiffin said the SEC plays tougher games late in the season when he gave Ole Miss a free bye week playing The Citadel in November.

Then Steve Sarkisian, who said that undefeated teams were a thing of the past just a few months before the Indiana Hoosiers went 16-0, took his turn in SEC supremacy.

According to Anwar Richardson, the Texas Longhorns head coach was speaking at The Touchdown Club of Houston this week and took the opportunity to seemingly criticize his in-state rival, the Texas Red Raiders. “There’s a team in our state that plays in another conference and has a schedule that I would argue with if we were playing with our two and three,” he said, “We can go undefeated and they’ll probably make the College Football Playoff this year.”

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I wonder who it might be other than Texas Tech!

Someone else found it extremely obvious who Sarkisian was talking about and took the opportunity to take a direct shot at the Longhorn coach and athletic director. Billionaire Texas Tech donor Cody Campbell got straight to the point in a post about X.

“Then program us!” Campbell responded to a post about Sark’s comments. “We’ve been talking about this for years and are more than willing!!”

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It seems a bit unlikely, especially considering Sark’s comments on planning After losing to Ohio State in 2025 and missing the playoffs. After failing to make the tournament field at 9-3, the Longhorns announced that all future non-conference scheduling decisions are currently under review.

He explained to the media at the time: “Yes, you know, I think there are a few things, there are layers to this. Listen to my answer.” “First of all, we’re going to honor Ohio State and Michigan. You know, we went there, we went to Ann Arbor, we went to Columbus, and we’re going to honor those return trips. So we know what our non-conference schedule is going to look like the next two years, and that’s the right thing to do. We made the commitment to play them. Now we’re going to honor that commitment for them to come play us here. I think anything beyond that is open to discussion.”

“We need to take a hard look at what our non-conference schedule will look like beyond the next two years.”

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian performs the Horn Up gesture while walking to Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium prior to the SEC football game against Texas A&M on November 28, 2025 in Austin, Texas. (David Buono/Icon Sportswire)

To be fair to Sark, no one can seriously argue that Texas Tech has a tougher schedule than Texas. Or even remotely close to Texas. Especially in 2026. In fact, in one ranking system, the Longhorns have the toughest schedule in the country. Obviously this is important and it puts him and Texas at a serious disadvantage.

Texas Tech’s schedule is weak, to say the least:

• Abilene Christian
• in Oregon State
• Houston
• Sam Houston
• in colorado
• Arizona State
• in cincinnati
• Arizona
• West Virginia
• in Oklahoma State
• at Baylor
• TCU

However, Arizona State, the bottom seed in the Big 12, had unquestionably edged Texas in the College Football Playoff just a few years ago. Texas Tech is clearly trying to schedule tougher teams and is having a hard time doing so. Scheduling is a two-way street, after all, and many other major programs probably don’t want to risk a non-conference loss.

And the Longhorns played in the Big 12 until recently. as one User x savedThey went 60-61 in conference play from 2010-2022. It’s a better schedule now than it was then, but the “we’ll go undefeated in every conference” act is getting too tiring. Especially when the SEC has struggled so much against other conferences in recent years. Especially considering how Texas actually played last year.

They lost 4-8 to Florida, one of the worst Power 4 teams in the country. They beat Kentucky, another overwhelming rival of the SEC, 16-13 in overtime. They needed a miraculous comeback in the fourth quarter to go into overtime against a painful Mississippi State. They scored 27 points in a 27-10 victory over UTEP.

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian looks on before the game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga., on Nov. 15, 2025. (Brett Davis/Imagn Images)

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At the end of the 2025 season, the advanced metric system SP+ had Texas as the program’s 13th toughest and 16th best on record. Texas Tech had the 45th-toughest schedule and the third-best strength because not only did it win games, it won them handily. Like beating a very good Utah team on the road, 34-10. And I manage a top 15 caliber BYU team with a 63-14 overall score.

Regardless, Texas has arguably the most expensive roster in college football. They are arguably the richest individual program in sports. No one will feel sorry for them. As tough as their schedule is, they don’t need to go nearly undefeated to reach the playoffs.