Texas Tech finally realizes Kliff Kingsbury is not Mike Leach

Kliff Kingsbury has lingered on the hot seat at Texas Tech for awhile, but athletic director Kirby Hocutt is no longer mincing words.

Kliff Kingsbury was a record-setting quarterback at Texas Tech, before he came back to Lubbock as head coach in 2013. An 8-5 mark in his first season, capped by a win in the Holiday Bowl, brought some promise. But the Red Raiders haven’t won more than seven games in a season since, and that will remain true regardless of Saturday’s result against Baylor.

Kingsbury was on the hot seat as the 2016 season wound down, but he lasted to 2017 and Texas Tech went to a bowl game. But at 5-6 right now, it has to beat Baylor (5-6) to earn bowl eligibility. Expectations shouldn’t really be incredibly high for the program, but during his weekly appearance on a Lubbock radio station this week athletic director Kirby Hocutt didn’t mince words about a lack of progress under Kingsbury.

"We’ve talked on this show about our expectations and where we aspire to be and wanting to be relevant. But you are what your record says you are and we’re not where we expect to be,"

Defense is mostly a suggestion in the Big 12, but Texas Tech is at a different level of bad. It is 107th in the country in total defense this year, including 127th against the pass, and tied for 86th in scoring defense. Kingsbury’s expertise is on the offensive side of the ball, but he hasn’t gotten his defensive coordinator hire right and David Gibbs will surely be done after his fourth season in that position regardless of Kingsbury’s status.

With defensive acumen perhaps in mind, a potential candidate has immediately surfaced to replace Kingsbury.

Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables is sure to be mentioned for head coaching openings, and as a Kansas State alum he could step in there if Bill Snyder is gone. But Venables and Hocutt were teammates and roommates as players at Kansas State in the early ’90s, so that tie could persuade Venables to go to Texas Tech.

The Red Raiders’ football program had great success under Mike Leach, with an 84-43 record over and a winning mark in all 10 of his seasons as head coach (2000-2009) before things ended on a bad note. Kingsbury piloted Texas Tech’s Air Raid offense in Leach’s first three seasons, to the previously mentioned prolific level. When Kingsbury returned as head coach, that made it easy to envision a return to the success the program enjoyed under Leach.

But after two years of succumbing to illusion, based on Kingsbury’s past status as a player in the program, Texas Tech has finally reached a logical conclusion. It’s not working, even if there’s modest expectations, and it’s time to consider a change at head coach.