Texas Tech football: David Gibbs reportedly looking to return to Houston

Texas Tech football defensive coordinator David Gibbs is reportedly looking to return to Houston where rumors indicate that he may be interviewing to take the same job he held before coming to Lubbock.

While the majority of the Texas Tech football coaching staff remains in Lubbock and in limbo following the firing of Kliff Kingsbury, defensive coordinator David Gibbs may be looking to return to a familiar spot.  According to the website GoCoogs.com, Gibbs may have been in Houston to interview for the same job he held before he took over the Red Raider defense four seasons ago.

Gibbs was defensive coordinator with Houston in 2013-14 while also serving as Houston’s interim head coach in the 2015 Armed Forces bowl after head coach Tony Levine was fired following the 2014 season.  That offseason, he was hired by Kliff Kingsbury to help rebuild a defense that had been led by six different coordinators in the past six seasons.

But Gibbs never experienced the type of sustained success at Texas Tech that many hoped he would.  In 2015, his defense ranked 127th out of 128 teams nationally in total defense and in 2016 it ranked last in the nation.

However, 2017 saw marked improvement as Gibbs finally had his roster stocked with players that fit his system. Tech made significant improvements and finished the season ranked 104th overall. While that was far from dominant, the fact that Gibbs was able to field a defense capable of showing any signs of life was enough to land him a two-year contract extension worth $650,000 per year.

But in 2018, the Tech defense took a step backwards.  The Red Raiders finished just 110th in the nation which was a disappointment considering the fact that Tech was the only Big 12 school to have three defensive players named to the preseason All-Big 12 defensive team.

All offseason, Gibbs was vocal about finally having a defense that he was confident in but the results never came.  Tech allowed five opponents to score at least 40 points finishing just 7th in the Big 12 in scoring defense.

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The Red Raiders were atrocious against the pass which was supposed to be Gibbs area of expertise after coaching defensive backs at Kansas, and in the NFL with the Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans. Texas Tech had the third-worst pass defense in the nation this season allowing 288.3 yards per game and 28 touchdowns.

What hurt Gibbs defenses at Texas Tech was his strategy of relying too heavily on forcing turnovers.  The idea sounds good in principle but is hard to execute because of the randomness of turnovers which are often nothing more than good fortune resulting from unforced mistake from the offense.

In 2017, Gibbs best year at Tech, the defense jumped 24 spots in the nation rankings primarily because it forced 29 turnovers (6th most in the nation).  However 15 of those were fumbles, which are most often random occurrences and are hard to replicate.  Tech’s turnover number dropped to just 18 this year (62nd in the nation) which is what Gibbs’ defenses averaged in his three seasons other than 2017.

That simply proved to be too few turnovers to counteract the talent deficiencies on the roster.  Despite the fact that Tech did significantly improve its defensive talent during Gibbs’ time, the results never came.  Texas Tech expected more from Gibbs than a defense that would never rank higher than 104th nationally.

Now, it appears he is interested in heading back to Houston where he had arguably his greatest success.  In 2014, Houston was 11th in the country in scoring defense allowing just 19.5 points per game and 19th nationally in total defense surrendering 334.6 yards per game.  And the season prior, Gibbs’ Houston defense racked up a stunning 43 turnovers to lead the nation.

Perhaps similar success awaits Gibbs again in Houston.  He was the best defensive coordinator Texas Tech has had since Ruffin McNeil in 2008-09 but just because he is the best we have seen in quite some time at Texas Tech, it doesn’t mean he was particularly good.