I’d have to imagine that there are plenty of dreams that a Texas high school quarterback has. With that state’s history of NFL superstars, your visions can stretch far beyond playing on Friday night. Most of those dreams, however, end at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Jerry’s World isn’t just the home of the Dallas Cowboys; it’s the site of the Texas High School Football State Championships. It’s somewhere that Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton and his father, James, who was his head coach at Eastland High School in Lubbock, never got to play.
The opportunity to play at AT&T Stadium finally came for Morton on Saturday, as the ESPN broadcast with sideline reporters Katie George and Kris Budden highlighted. He led the Red Raiders to their first-ever Big 12 Title, cementing himself as a Texas Tech legend with his father in attendance.
While James Morton couldn’t be on the sideline coaching his son, he had a request for the man who was: Joey McGuire. James wanted a picture of Behren and McGuire walking off the field as Big 12 Champions, something they prophesied back in June.
Joey McGuire: “In June, (Behren Morton) and I both said, we're going to win the Big 12 championship, and we're going to walk out of Cowboys Stadium together. His dad sent me a text this week and said, just make sure I get a picture of you two walking out.” pic.twitter.com/mR1AsRw1o4
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) December 6, 2025
Behren Morton made the most of 1st game at AT&T Stadium
The fifth-year senior quarterback from Lubbock finished 20-for-33 for 215 yards and two touchdowns in Texas Tech’s 34-7 win. It wasn’t just the program’s first Big 12 Title, but also its first conference title of any kind since a shared Southwest Conference Title in 1994 and its first outright conference championship since it won the Border Conference crown in 1955.
Morton has dealt with injuries throughout much of his Texas Tech career, and he has missed one game this season, the Red Raiders' only loss in Week 8 to Arizona State, 26-22. After Saturday’s emphatic win in Arlington, the 12-1 Red Raiders are undefeated with Morton healthy and have a chance to claim a top-four seed and a first-round bye in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
If that’s the case, Texas Tech will not play again until the CFP quarterfinals, which could come with a return trip to Arlington, the site of the Cotton Bowl. Last year, the Cotton Bowl served as a CFP semifinal, but this season, it is a quarterfinal matchup and will take place on New Year’s Eve.
Now that Morton has gotten a win at AT&T Stadium, he and the rest of his teammates will have to set their sights on Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens for the National Championship Game.