Texas Tech’s football program is about to have two debuts at once: the Red Raiders open the season against Abilene Christian at Galaxy Stadium, and Paramount+ drops its four-part docuseries, “The Program: Texas Tech,” on Friday, Sept. 4.
For a team that already lives with cameras from Tech athletics’ in-house creative services and social media staff, this project has meant a different kind of attention over the past eight months. Running back Cameron Dickey said the trailers alone were enough to get him hooked.
“I've seen a few of the trailers,” Dickey said this week. “As soon as the trailer came out, goosebumps just flooded, and I'm so excited to see it.”
The series, directed and shown by Micah Brown, has been filming since January and has tracked the program through a turbulent offseason. By the time production was more than three months in, the expected starting quarterback, Brendan Sorsby, had left the team in late April for gambling addiction treatment and eventually parted ways with the program.
According to the promotional description, the docuseries follows the Red Raiders “during an off-season that could redefine college football, capturing head coach Joey McGuire's race to reinvent the team and build a new identity around a prized transfer quarterback whose future suddenly hangs in the balance.”
Dennis Quaid provides the narration, and Skydance Sports and Second Wind Creative produced the series. Interviews in the project include McGuire, Sorsby and Texas Tech University System Board of Regents Chairman Cody Campbell.
For McGuire, the experience has been a mix of access, pressure and a little pain.
“It’s been awesome,” McGuire said of the relationship with Paramount+. “We get to … preview a lot of stuff.
They've been a great partner, and so some of it's painful to relive, but I think our fans and the rest of the country are going to really enjoy it. But (they're) a most professional group, and they've become part of our family.”
McGuire also said the series shows a side of him that players already know well, calling it “a very animated coach McGuire.”
“I think our fan base and the rest of the world that aren't in this building every single day is going to see a different side of me and a part that our players know,” McGuire said. “Whenever I'm outside the white lines, I have a lot of fun.
I joke a lot, usually pre-practice. But man, when we start competing inside the white lines, the intensity ramps up tremendously, and I expect that out of our players.”
Texas Tech is coming off a 12-2 season that ended with a 23-0 loss to Oregon in the Orange Bowl, a College Football Playoff quarterfinal. McGuire said having to respond to that finish, then navigate the Sorsby situation, brought the group closer together.
With Sorsby gone and Will Hammond back after a season-ending knee injury last year, Hammond is expected to start the opener.
“Just being able to showcase the team and the culture that we've got is really important to me,” Hammond said, “so I'm excited for that to be shown.”
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