Matt Wells shouldn’t be written off as the right hire for Texas Tech
He may not be who Texas Tech football fans want, but Matt Wells shouldn’t be written off as the right hire.
After increasing buzz he would be fired, a loss last Saturday to Baylor sealed Kliff Kingsbury’s fate at Texas Tech. On Wednesday a report attached Utah State coach Matt Wells to Texas Tech. Then on Thursday, the Lubbock Avalanche Journal reported the two sides are in negotiations and an offer to Wells is forthcoming.
Wells has spent the last six seasons as head coach at Utah State, with a 10-2 record this year and a 44-34 overall record. The Aggies have won nine or more games three times under Wells, and they’ll go to a bowl for the fifth time in his tenure this year.
Kingsbury played quarterback at Texas Tech under Mike Leach, and the idea he was a Leach clone (based on results anyway) had long since faded. Some former Leach assistants have gone to be head coaches, and one reportedly wanted to come back to Lubbock.
Thought I had tweeted this earlier -- and I included it in this story. But yes, as others have reported, WVU coach Dana Holgorsen wanted the job, and Kirby Hocutt declined to interview him, a source told me. https://t.co/KrwSOxDwc9
— Don Williams (@AJ_DonWilliams) November 29, 2018
We can confirm that Dana Holgorsen was interested in the Texas Tech opening but Kirby Hocutt declines to interview him morning. @RedRaiderNation @KAMCNews
— David Collier (@CollieronTV) November 29, 2018
West Virginia head coach Dana Holgersen was an assistant under Leach at Texas Tech from 2000-2007. He then served as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Houston (where Kingsbury was on staff), then the same post at Oklahoma State before starting his now eight-season run at West Virginia.
The decision by athletic director Kirby Hocutt to not interview Holgersen is odd. But it also points to wanting to extend outside the familiarity of Leach’s coaching tree or influence, and Wells was a rumored candidate for multiple openings as the coaching carousel started to move.
Texas Tech fans seem set to lament Wells’ hiring, especially with the decision to completely bypass Holgersen. But offensive coordinator David Yost, who is likely to follow Wells to Lubbock, was inside wide receivers coach under Leach at Washington State from 2013-2015. In a show of that influence, while they aren’t running an Air Raid offense, Utah State leads the FBS in scoring drives of less than one minute so far this year (24).
It became easy for Red Raiders’ fans to see the best of Kingsbury, and ignore the mediocre results (four losing records in six seasons; 35-40 record). Holgersen is the popular big name candidate with solid success at a Power 5 school, and if he’s looking to move he’ll have options. Holgersen is also going to be expensive for whoever wants to pry him from West Virginia.
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It can be a big jump for some Group of 5 head coaches when they move to a school with a bigger budget and higher expectations. But immediately writing Wells off as a good hire for Texas Tech can only be based on flimsy reasoning, and if he wins a lot of games while occasionally beating a bigger-name rival his tenure will be a decided success.