The Texas Tech Red Raiders have dismissed defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Matt Wallerstedt on Thursday. This comes after a crushing loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks in which Texas Tech allowed 438 yards on the ground and seven rushing touchdowns. That’s right. SEVEN. In fact, running the ball against the Red Raiders was so easy for Arkansas that they ran on 38 of 40 second half plays en route to a 49-28 win.
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After a whipping like that, you have to figure that at least one head was going to roll. It turned out to be Wallerstedt’s
Wallerstedt followed Kliff Kingsbury to Lubbock when Kingsbury accepted the head coaching position at Texas Tech two years ago. Wallerstedt was the linebackers coach at Texas A&M where Kingsbury was the offensive coordinator under Kevin Sumlin.
The Red Raiders have long been known for a high-flying offense with a sketchy defense, but I don’t ever remember them being gouged like this. Under Tommy Tuberville, the defense had shown signs of being better than it ever was under his predecessor, Mike Leach. Most of these players and schemes were still in place when Wallerstedt took over.
The performance against Arkansas got Wallerstedt the axe much like BYU and Mississippi’s destruction of Texas early last year got Manny Diaz fired. Someone has to take the fall for failures like the one we saw from the Texas Tech defense on Saturday. That’s just the way it is now.
There is no word on a potential replacement for Wallerstedt yet, but expect something to be announced before the Red Raiders take the field next Thursday against Oklahoma State.
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