College Football 2018: Grading every new Power 5 coaching hire
5. Texas Tech Red Raiders
New Coach: Matt Wells
Departed Coach: Kliff Kingsbury
Kliff Kingsbury was the perfect fit to pick up the pieces after Tommy Tuberville bolted from Lubbock in the dead of the night for Cincinnati, as the Red Raiders were looking for a coach who would stay long-term, and wouldn’t let their eyes wander toward the horizon for the next job that came available.
Kingsbury would have stayed in Lubbock as long as they would have had him, but he couldn’t win enough to make that happen. A third straight losing season, marked by a five-game losing streak to end 2018 that kept the team out of a bowl game for the second time in three years was too much to overcome for Lubbock’s native son.
The decision to hire Utah State’s Matt Wells, one of the hottest names among group-of-five coaches, was met with little fanfare and lots of vitriol from a Texas Tech fanbase with its vision clouded by delusions of grandeur.
The naysayers point to Wells’ 44-34 overall record, and his three consecutive losing seasons in a row from 2015-17 to question the decision to bring him to Lubbock, ignoring the extenuating circumstances in those three seasons, and ignoring the 10-2 mark he led the Aggies to in 2018.
Texas Tech wasn’t able to field even semi-competent defenses during Kingsbury’s tenure, wasting the talent of the best player in school history in Patrick Mahomes, who is currently the front-runner for NFL MVP in just his first season as the starter in Kansas City.
Wells should remedy that, with a penchant for fielding strong defenses; Utah State finished the season ranked 35th in yards-per-play allowed this season. He’s also groomed highly successful quarterbacks such as Chuckie Keeton and Jordan Love, so there shouldn’t be too big of an offensive drop-off, either, even if the team ditches the traditional air-raid.
Even if Wells only wins at the 56% clip he won at in Logan, that mark would make him the second most successful Texas Tech coach since the 1970s.