OT: Texas Tech fires HC Matt Wells
https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mac-engel/articl…
Interesting to fire him after starting out 5-3. However, they were uncompetitive in two rivalry losses (Texas and TCU), and barely beat an average FCS team (SFA). Blowing a 14-point lead to Kansas State on Saturday was the final nail.
I have no idea who they will hire, but I love aggressive decision-making, especially when they have been irrelevant for at least a decade.
October 25th, 2021 at 1:15 PM ^
Seems a bit early. When was the last time TT had sustained success? The Michael Crabtree year was more than a decade ago.
October 25th, 2021 at 1:28 PM ^
They haven't had sustained success since Mike Leach left following the events with Craig James' son. I like Lubbock. But it's not an easy place to recruit to and win at just because it's in Texas. It's probably the most difficult of the big Texas universities to recruit to, and B12 status notwithstanding, I'd include Houston in that list even before they accepted the invitation to join.
October 25th, 2021 at 1:40 PM ^
Lubbock is amazingly isolated. 300 miles from basically anything else.
October 25th, 2021 at 1:15 PM ^
Competition for MSU to hire against when Tucker goes to LSU
October 25th, 2021 at 1:24 PM ^
Have BTN on during my lunch break and they’re airing Tucker’s presser. He got a question about the LSU opening and completely deflected.
October 25th, 2021 at 1:25 PM ^
They are gonna lose 3 more games. I doubt he will be that attractive at the end of the season.
October 25th, 2021 at 1:40 PM ^
9-3 at MSU in year 1.5 is still damn impressive from where they were at, and might be enough of wake-up call in the B10 East that his path to a championship is difficult. He's proven he can work the portal well in areas of need and it's rumored LSU wants to hire a black coach (which greatly narrows the options).
October 25th, 2021 at 2:12 PM ^
Saban hit his 9-2 high water mark at MSU right as he was heading to LSU.
October 25th, 2021 at 5:37 PM ^
To be fair, pre-2000 LSU and modern LSU are two very, very different things.
October 25th, 2021 at 5:42 PM ^
c'mon. gerry dinardo had that program running on all cylinders. well, i guess the model T had only one cylinder.
October 25th, 2021 at 1:17 PM ^
Not even through year 3....and 5-3 so far. Seems like an AD you would love to work for.
October 25th, 2021 at 1:53 PM ^
Yeah, wow. Seems harsh. Yes, he had losing seasons his first two years, but last year was a COVID year and has an asterisk; this year he has at least beaten real teams and has a winning record.
Of course, the team faces the guantlet now, with four ranked teams to finish the year.
But why not give him a chance? Now the team has no coach and they're about to get demolished down the stretch. That does the next guy no favors, and the next guy knows that whatever mess he inherits he's got two years to turn it around or the rug gets pulled out from under him.
Recipe for perpetual disaster. I mean, the coach of the team with the best record in the NFL right now couldn't win consistently at Texas Tech, and the next guy got two and a half covid-afflicted years... sounds like a poison job to me.
Unless there's something bad going on we don't know about, either actually illegality or a total team revolt. That would make it defensible. Otherwise, ugh.
October 25th, 2021 at 2:15 PM ^
That last paragraph, to me, points to something else going on beyond 5-3 record. Especially when you pretty much need to wipe out last year, dude was barely given a shot.
October 25th, 2021 at 5:43 PM ^
imo, it's the AD that should be fired. he made the hire. he should live and die with it.
October 25th, 2021 at 4:08 PM ^
Texans are a level-headed bunch. Maybe their next move will be to announce their joining the SEC.
October 25th, 2021 at 1:18 PM ^
UTSA is undefeated, bet their HC gets a call.
October 25th, 2021 at 1:53 PM ^
This is the answer. My guess is Texas Tech is trying to get a a head start on any other Texas programs for UTSA Jeff Traylor. LSU could pursue Baylor's Dave Aranda, and TCU's Gary Patterson is starting to feel some heat.
October 25th, 2021 at 2:27 PM ^
Smart thinking. Except I don't see any way that TCU nukes Patterson.
October 25th, 2021 at 2:55 PM ^
Yeah, what happens to the statue in front of the stadium when the coach gets fired (for football reasons)?
October 25th, 2021 at 1:22 PM ^
Sonny Dykes? His dad coached at Texas Tech forever and SMU isn't going to the Big 12.
October 25th, 2021 at 1:28 PM ^
"I have no idea who they will hire, but I love aggressive decision-making, especially when they have been irrelevant for at least a decade."
Sounds a lot like us. That goodness Warde didnt travel that path.
October 25th, 2021 at 1:45 PM ^
If he had, he would have made a decision during the 2017 season. I mean, canning Harbaugh for 2017's results - following what happened in 2015 and 2016 - would have been gross negligence the scale of which Dave Brandon could not attain.
If you were talking about last year, that was 6 years in the making, so hardly the "aggressive decision-making" you and OP are thinking of. FWIW, I think the TT AD made a bad decision too soon. Two and half years is not enough to get a program going (espeically one that's been bad historically).
(As bad as it looks in Tallahassee right now, they need to give Norvell a fighting chance to build a roster...)
October 25th, 2021 at 2:02 PM ^
Scott Frost goes to Tech, why not he can’t win in Nebraska.
October 25th, 2021 at 2:14 PM ^
Nebraska is a lot better this year, irrelevant of the record. If I had a guess for breakout team in the West next year, it's them.
I think Frost needs to find that organized assistant that Harbaugh finally appears to have found in the offseason, and he can turn that corner.
October 25th, 2021 at 3:13 PM ^
Breakout team next year? Their defense is like all sixth year seniors and their QB is probably gone. They don’t recruit well so I’m not sure why anyone would think Nebraska will be good next year.
October 25th, 2021 at 2:29 PM ^
He came into the year pretty much dead man walking. They made him hire a guy who played for Texas Tech under Leach to come in and re-install the Air Raid, he was a defense-first guy at Utah State.
I think the interim has a real chance to win the job, he knows the place inside and out. But Tech is also a school going through a major existential crisis over what their program is in the new Big 12. Lubbock is in West Texas, it's a long way from where the elite Texas HS talent is, and their big selling point over places like Houston and SMU and other schools like that closer to talent is "we're in the Big 12 and they're mid majors." Well, what are you when your only selling point is major conference when you're now a mid major? Houston's now in the same conference as you, why would anyone choose you over them?
October 25th, 2021 at 3:19 PM ^
If Bowman got the hell out of Dodge to be a 3rd/4th stringer, that program has to be a shitshow.
October 25th, 2021 at 3:20 PM ^
NFL Owners and GM's clearly working on offers to be a head coach. Fired Texas Tech head coachers are a top priority.