A quick perusal of the 2023 Texas Tech football roster shows that there are no Red Raiders from the state of Utah, and only a couple from the Mountain and Pacific time zones.
But the legacy Big 12 program won’t be coming into LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday night (5 p.m., FS1) to face the 4-2 BYU Cougars totally blind and unaware of what to expect from a crowd of more than 60,000 in Texas Tech’s first-ever game in the Beehive State.
“What Mike Fraser did for kids in West Valley was unbelievable. He was a great coach, and I still talk to him. I tell people about him. He was a great motivator. Honestly, my coaching style is a lot like how Fraser was, to be honest with you.” — Texas Tech associate head coach Kenny Perry on former Granger and Hunter coach Mike Fraser
Associate head coach, special teams coordinator and running backs coach Kenny Perry has already given them a complete rundown. Also, outside linebackers coach C.J. Ah You began his college career playing for BYU before transferring to Oklahoma.
“I have built it up, because I have been to Provo and the stadium there and know how crazy it is,” Perry told the Deseret News Thursday night. “It is a great atmosphere. Our kids are really fired up and excited to go and play in that stadium.”
How would Perry know?
It’s simple. Although he’s listed as a native of Arlington, Texas, and he played college football for the University of Houston, Perry began his high school career playing for legendary Utah prep coach Mike Fraser at Granger High in West Valley City, starring for the Lancers his sophomore season as a running back.
However, Perry’s stepfather was transferred back to Arlington midway through his sophomore season, and he returned to his hometown and finished his prep career at Arlington Lamar, playing for another legend, Eddy Peach.
“I played for one of the winningest coaches in Texas history, Eddy Peach, and Mike Fraser was right up there with Eddy Peach,” Perry said, noting that Fraser went from Granger to Hunter High when that nearby school opened and built it into a state power as well.
“What Mike Fraser did for kids in West Valley was unbelievable. He was a great coach, and I still talk to him. I tell people about him. He was a great motivator. Honestly, my coaching style is a lot like how Fraser was, to be honest with you.”
After coaching for a few years at Houston, Perry got a call from Fraser about an opening on the staff at Granger, and Perry returned to Utah and coached for a couple years there under another former Utah coaching legend, Ray Groth.
He would eventually return to the Lone Star State and become a highly successful coach at Sam Houston, Haltom City and Arlington Bowie high schools. Perry had a 67-22 record in seven seasons at Bowie, and was the Dallas Morning News’ Coach of the Year in 2007.
He jumped to the college ranks in 2013, joining Gary Patterson’s staff at TCU, and has also been at Kansas (2015-18), in the XFL with the Dallas Renegades, and at SMU before following head coach Joey McGuire to Lubbock.
But he’s never forgotten how great it was to play and coach in Utah.
“I love that state,” he said. “I go back a lot.”
Perry has not only stayed in touch with Fraser, who constantly reminds him that the Lancers could have won a state title if he hadn’t left, but also with dozens of players he coached at Granger in the mid-1990s.
When some of those old players, such as former BYU RB Fahu Tahi and former Highland High coach Brody Benson, learned last spring that Texas Tech was on BYU’s 2023 home schedule, they set up a reunion with their old assistant coach.
“Friday night when we get there, something like 40-50 guys I coached at Granger (and surrounding schools) are going to get together at one of the kids’ houses and kinda eat and B.S. and hang out,” he said. “I can’t wait.”
He also can’t wait to have Utah join the Big 12 next year, as he remains friends with former Utes coach Ron McBride and has tons of respect for Kyle Whittingham.
“Utah is going to be really good here in the Big 12,” Perry said. “They make the conference better. Every conference is good, but this conference is loaded. Utah is going to be fine. Those guys do a great job recruiting.
“Whittingham is like when I was working with Gary Patterson. They are the same guy. They built those programs the way they wanted to build them. They are respectable programs, playing at a national level every year,” he continued.
The aforementioned Ah You, who has also coached at USC, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, is the uncle of current BYU linebacker Chaz Ah You and brother of BYU assistant athletic director for football academics Jasen Ah You.
Cougars on the air
Texas Tech (2-2, 3-4) at BYU (1-2, 4-2)
Saturday, 5 p.m. MDT
LaVell Edwards Stadium
Provo, Utah
TV: FS1
Radio: KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM/1160 AM