It never ran through Lubbock.
Texas Tech got the best of the Texas Longhorns last year, but that demon suffered a severe exorcism on Senior Night 2023. Texas closed out the rivalry with the kind of beatdown that Mike Tyson once played on Michael Spinks.
Had it been a boxing match, it would not have gone the distance, but on this night the fan base wanted to take in every delicious second of the most gratifying win since the Horns took down Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.
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As the final minutes counted down in Friday’s epic 57-7 annihilation of the Red Raiders, the stadium operators at Royal-Memorial Stadium gave the crowd of 102,452 a treat even greater than young Arch Manning’s collegiate debut.
There on the massive Godzillatron was video of Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark addressing the Lubbock-based Red Raider Club at its annual August kickoff luncheon.
“Coach, I’m not going to put any pressure on you, but I’m going to be in Austin for Thanksgiving,” Yormark said to Tech’s Joey McGuire. “And you better take care of business like you did right here in Lubbock last year.”
His call to action came on the heels of McGuire telling his team in the locker room that “the country was going to find out that everything runs through Lubbock now” following Tech’s overtime home win over the Horns last season.
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Their comments played well in the 806, but on Friday, the Red Raiders, their head coach and the league’s illustrious commissioner had that turkey aftertaste replaced by a heaping plate of raw crow. The Horns ran through the Red Raiders like a new Ginsu through a soft stick of Parkay.
The Yormark receipts played out in HD with the No. 7 Horns already well into celebrating the second-most lopsided win in the history of the rivalry. Twenty-four years after they put a 58-7 stomping on the Red Raiders, the crowd went wild as the words “SEE Y’ALL IN ARLINGTON” replaced the commissioner’s image on the screen.
So did the players who got a large dose of Yormark this week as strength and conditioning coach Torre Becton had the audio playing on a loop during their lifting sessions. By the time it played, linebacker Jaylan Ford said he could recite the comments word for word.
“It was ingrained in our minds,” said quarterback Quinn Ewers. “That made us dislike it even more what he was saying. It’s just crazy to have our commissioner to say that about us. But it is what it is, and we took care of business.”
Coach Steve Sarkisian has taken the high road when asked about the Yormark stuff, but he has also managed to subtly get in a couple of nice understated shots in the twilight of Texas’ Big 12 stay before leaving for the SEC. The two spoke before the game and Sarkisian thanked the commissioner for coming.
Then his team took Tech apart.
Yormark’s fateful comments served a purpose for the commissioner at time but also added a few lumps of coal to a smoldering fire of motivation for the Horns in the offseason.
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“(Yormark) said some things that were out of play and kind of having fun with the crowd, but man, we’ll take anything we can get to fire our guys up,” Sarkisian said. “So I kind of thanked him for the video. But our fans aren’t naive to it either. And so to show that video to the stadium and to all of our fans, I think was just kind of all part of the celebration of it all. So, again, I know he’ll be there again next week. So hopefully we can put on one more good show for him.”
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“Embrace the Hate” was the mantra of a team that has also taken John Wick’s me-against-the world mentality, and they will take that same attitude into Saturday’s Big 12 title game.
They don’t mind backing it up on game night and letting you know they did it to you as evidenced by tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders’ not-so-subtle message to McGuire on social media after the game. At 11-1, the Horns are unapologetic to the haters and confident in where they’re going in Sark’s third year.
“We’re the University of Texas and we can’t continue to sit back and just take punches from everybody and not kind of fight back, and I think that our team has adopted that,” Sarkisian said. “So when you poke the bear, that should strike up some things down inside of us to not just play good on Saturdays and Fridays, or whatever night we’re playing on.”
This win was a throwback to the beginnings of Mack Brown’s building of a national power. In that 1999 blowout, the Horns smoked Tech because of a dominant defensive line led by future NFL stars Casey Hampton, and Shaun Rogers, Big 12 freshman of the year Cory Redding and some damn good co-conspirators in Aaron Humphrey and Cedric Woodard. That night the Horns battered Texas Tech quarterbacks Rob Peters and Kliff Kingsbury and outgained the Red Raiders 504-160.
They dressed 22 seniors that game, one less than the Horns dressed on Friday. And just like their football forefathers, today’s defense took center stage, led by their own nasty line duo of T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy II, both playing their final home game. It was a similar beatdown in scope with the Horns holding the Red Raiders to only 198 yards while the offense gobbled up 528.
When asked about anything football-related possibly running through Lubbock, Sweat flashed a big smile and thought about it for a second.
“It starts here,” he said. “What’s that little saying? What starts here changes the world.”
And the Tech beatdown?
“We preach on having shutouts as a whole defense,” he said. “Playing with the group of guys we have is awesome, man. I’m so grateful just playing with them and getting to do what I can do best.”
To steal a line from Mr. Wick, the Horns are starting to feel like they’re back.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Amid Texas Tech beatdown, Texas football stalks Big 12 supremacy
