Joey McGuire has often roamed a sideline during games in Texas on Friday nights in the fall. This time will feel much different for the Texas Tech coach.
The 13th-ranked Red Raiders, the defending Big 12 champions, play their conference opener in prime time Friday night against No. 22 Houston. It will be Tech's first regular-season home game on a Friday since 1941.
“It's weird because I’m so used to Friday nights in the state of Texas is kind of holy
ground when it comes to Texas high school football,” said McGuire, the fifth-year Tech coach who won three state championships while head coach at Cedar Hill High School near Dallas from 2003-16.
Even before the Big 12 released a list of non-Saturday games in April, Texas Tech regents chair and billionaire booster Cody Campbell had heard about the plans to move his school's conference opener. He posted on social media that “Friday Night Lights are sacred in the Great State of Texas!” and also wrote that it was ”absolutely absurd" that the Big 12 and Fox Sports would consider that.
But the Big 12 television contract allows for 12 regular-season football games a year to be played on a day other than Saturday.
Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark, who had some public back-and-forth with Campbell, has said that television ratings for the conference’s Friday night games last season were 64% better than its average rating.
The Red Raiders (2-0) have two non-Saturday regular-season games this year. Their regular season finale at home against TCU is on Thanksgiving night. In their previous 30 seasons in the Big 12, they played only six times on Friday, all on the road and with four of those coming the day after Thanksgiving. The last was in 2023.
“Well, obviously people have known for a long time that you play high school football in the state of Texas on Friday night,” McGuire said. “And so this is a little different, but it’s huge.”
This meeting of expected contenders is the first of eight games matching Big 12 teams that won't be on a Saturday. Five of those are in November. Eleven of the league's 16 teams will be part of those conference games.
Houston (2-0), which played three Friday night games last season, and Texas Tech are among five teams that will play two this year. The Cougars are at Colorado on Nov. 13.
Even playing on a Friday night, this will be Tech's 10th consecutive home sellout.
“That was one of the things that I was definitely worried about, even though we have the best fan base in the country,” McGuire said. “But we’re also in Friday Night Lights, like the world of Friday Night Lights in West Texas. That’s where it all began whenever you think about the book and everything like that. But it’s going to be a great game.”
The Texas Tech campus in Lubbock is a little more than two hours north of Odessa, Texas, where the 1988 Permian High School team was the subject of Buzz Bissinger's book “Friday Night Lights” that was released in 1990.
That was adapted into a 2004 feature film starring Billy Bob Thornton as the coach. A television series with that title had a five-season run from 2006-11.
McGuire is a member of the Texas High School Coaches Association (THSCA) Hall of Fame, and the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame. He constantly refers to Texas Tech as the unofficial home of the THSCA, and 11 members of his current staff have ties to the organization. He regularly speaks at the group's annual convention and hosts clinics for high school coaches each year.
During pregame Friday night, McGuire plans to wear his THSCA cap to show support for all prep coaches and that organization.
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