Texas Tech football: It is time to end the Kliff Kingsbury experiment

With the Texas Tech football team destined to go another season without a winning record, it is time to put an end to the Kliff Kingsbury experiment.

This is the piece I never wanted to write. But for the past two seasons, it is also the piece I’ve known I’d eventually be forced to write. That’s because it is time for the Texas Tech football program to finally put an end to the Kliff Kingsbury experiment.

Of course, this is not a knee-jerk reaction to yesterday’s 21-6 wetting of the bed in Manhattan, Kansas. One game should not determine the outcome of a decision of this magnitude.

Rather, the six-year pilot program that put the fate of a multi-million dollar Big 12 program in the hands of a 33-year-old alum with only five years coaching experience, has not revolutionized the college football world as we all had hoped in December of 2012.

Rather, it has shown that there is more to being a head coach than having than a brilliant understanding of X’s and O’s and a Rodeo Drive wardrobe. Being a college head coach at a school facing the type of inherent challenges that are present at Texas Tech is tremendously difficult and requires more than Kingsbury can offer at this point in his career.

This shouldn’t be taken as a personal insult aimed at Kliff Kingsbury. No one can take issue with the effort he has put into the job or the class and dignity with which he’s represented Texas Tech.

If blame must be assigned, it must land at the feet of the man who decided to try the experiment in the first place, Kirby Hocutt. Aside from putting the most important job on campus in the hands of a coach that had been the offensive coordinator at a Power 5 program for only one season, he also asked that coach to hire a staff on a non-competitive budget.

The results were devastating as Kingsbury’s initial group of assistants was a collection of fellow 30-somethings (most of which were former Red Raiders themselves) that more closely resembled the Beta Theta Pi fraternity than a major college football coaching staff.

Now, those seeds that were sown in cheap soil have yielded rotten fruit and it is time to simply cut down the tree and pant a new one.

With an overall record that has dropped to 35-39, Kingsbury’s .472 winning percentage is the third-worst in Texas Tech football history. Of the 15 men that have held the position, only two, Grady Higginbotham (1929) and Jerry Moore (1981-1985) have had lower winning percentages.

And we could continue to rattle off more unfortunate stats but by now anyone that has been paying close attention knows about Kingsbury’s shortcomings. He has an overall conference record of 19-34 and has never had more than four Big 12 wins in a season and that is all that needs to be said.

Prior to this season, Hocutt said he needed to see progress and after the loss to Kansas State, there is no way that Texas Tech can improve on last year’s 6-6 regular season record, which is the only measure of progress that matters. And any progress that the 2018 team may have shown this season was wiped out by one of the most embarrassing and gutless performances of the “Air Raid” era on Saturday.

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Faced with an opportunity to save their season and likely their head coach’s job, this team did not have the testicular fortitude to fight through cold weather and beat a 4-6 Kansas State team that had averaged just 19 points per game in Big 12 play.

This team did not come to play for its head coach nor did it play for its university or for the sake of pride. Rather, it seemed content to accept the excuses that so many have offered during this 4-game losing streak as justification for turning in a performance that will likely be remembered as the death blow to the Kingsbury era.

Regardless of what happens in the season finale against Baylor, a change must be made. There simply can’t be any 11th-hour reprieves from Hocutt this year as has been the case after wins to end the regular season in each of the past two years.

In 1960, Texas Tech played its first season in the Southwest Conference signaling the Red Raiders’s arrival as a major program in the sport. That was also the last year of head coach DeWitt Weaver’s 10-season run (he complied a .490 winning percentage).

Since then, ten men have been head coach and only two, Spike Dykes and Mike Leach have had longer tenures than Kliff Kingsbury. Hocutt should be applauded for giving his hand-picked candidate plenty of time to be successful but there comes a point when patience turns into stagnation and we have come to that moment (if we hadn’t already).

Kingsbury has had plenty of time to build a winner. After six seasons, every player, every coach, every trainer, every secretary and every janitor in the football offices is a direct reflection of the man in charge.

Six years ago, Kirby Hocutt made a bold move to bring back one of the program’s most beloved heroes to unify a fractured fan base and usher in a new era. It was a bold stroke and one that was worth the risk.

Related Story. Loss to Kansas State worst of Kingsbury era. light

But now, it is clear that this story will not have a fairy tale ending. Texas Tech and Kliff Kingsbury need to go their separate ways for the good of both parties in the college football vision of a no fault divorce. The Kingsbury experiment has run its course and it is time for Texas Tech to head back into the lab to find a new formula for success before the situation devolves any further.

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