Big 12 Rising Rivalry: Texas Tech vs. TCU?

With Sonny Dykes taking over at TCU, a new rivalry could be growing between the Horned Frogs and Red Raiders.

ARLINGTON - New Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire can see the changing tides in college football. This goes well past the future of the Big 12 and conference realignment. 

Texas and Oklahoma are on the way out. BYU, UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston will arrive in July of 2023. New rivalries are bound to be found in the process. 

"It's going to be interesting to see what pans out of how that's going to be," McGuire said at Big 12 Media Days. "Is [our rival] going to be TCU? There's a great history with TCU and Texas Tech. Is it going to be Baylor? I know they're not going to be in the conference, but I hope we still play Texas every year." 

TCU is under new leadership for the first time in over 20 seasons following the departure of Gary Patterson. Sonny Dykes, the son of longtime Texas Tech coach, Spike Dykes, will makes the move from Dallas to Fort Worth after spending the past four seasons at SMU. 

Sonny has ties to Lubbock beyond his father. Under former coach Mike Leach, Dykes served as the Red Raiders’ wide receivers coach from 2000 to 2006. He also has head coaching experience prior to his sucess with the Mustangs, having coached at Louisiana Tech and Cal. 

When asked, Sonny Dykes responded in a similar fashion to McGuire on the future rivalries between the Red Raiders and Horned Frogs. There's history, but there's also history with several other in-state programs. 

"I think TCU and Baylor makes sense," Dykes said. "It's kind of two like-minded institutions that are close together. I think there were some hard-fought, tough football games when Art Briles was at Baylor and Gary Patterson was at TCU. 

"With the Texas teams, there's going to be a rivalry between all of us." 

Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor and Houston have a long-standing history prior to the Cougars' arrival next summer. All four programs were members of the Southwest Conference until 1996 and played annually, along with Texas, Texas A&M and SMU and several other schools. 

When the league folded, Baylor and Texas Tech joined the Big 12. TCU and SMU departed for the WAC while Houston joined Conference USA. McGuire joked stating that the Red Raiders' Week 2 matchup against the Cougars could be a "scouting report" for future games with Dana Holgorsen. 

"I'm a huge fan of Dana Holgorsen," McGuire said. "I would consider him a friend and they're a really good football team. It's going to give us a really good measuring stick of who we are." 

Dykes isn't ready to name one specific rival to his tenure with TCU, but he does envision matchups against Tech to be enticing moving forward. 

"It makes sense," Dykes said. "They're two like-minded institutions in the state of Texas who recruit against each other regularly and to me, it makes sense to be a rivalry." 

The Horned Frogs will host the Red Raiders on Nov. 5. 

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