Why most Texas Tech football fans really don’t want Matt Wells

Hocutt got our hopes up at the press conference by using the term “elite”

Kirby Hocutt was at his best during Sunday afternoon’s press conference.  He passionately declared that Texas Tech football would be “elite” again while also saying that we would regain our “edge”.

By using the term “elite” nearly twenty times in under 30 minutes, Hocutt planted a seed in the minds of Texas Tech football fans.  We left Saturday believing that he was going to land the hype of coach that people would consider to be among the best in the game.

As evidenced by Wells’ overall record, there is no way for anyone to consider him “elite”.  He may be a very good coach but nothing he has done as of yet can be considered “elite”.

Wells has not won a conference title and has only taken his team to the MWC title game once.  He has not produced teams that are annually among the nation’s best non-Power 5 teams like Boise State or Central Florida.

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In fairness, neither Tim Tadlock nor Chris Beard would have been considered “elite” when Hocutt hired them.  It was only during their time in Lubbock that they reached that level and Wells could potentially follow suite.  But expecting fans to be calm and level-headed duding a football head coaching search is like asking a middle school girl to remain calm at a Justin Bieber concert.

Hocutt may have done himself a disservice by repeatedly using the term “elite”.  There are very few “elite” programs and coaches in the nation and of the candidates mentioned in connection with Texas Tech, perhaps only Brent Venables and Dana Holgorsen could be characterized in any way as being “elite”.

Sunday afternoon, Hocutt left us feeling like he was going to bring a coach to Lubbock that was a mixture of William Wallace and Bear Bryant.  That’s why it is so hard for Texas Tech fans to think about the possibility of hiring a coach that has been nothing but slightly above average at a level of football that a truly “elite” coach should dominate.

One must assume that some members of the athletic department are keeping an eye on fan attitudes during this process and sharing that information to Kirby Hocutt.  It would be foolish to ignore that important barometer.  But that may not matter in the end.  Hocutt could still decide to hire Matt Wells but if he does, he will be making a very unpopular hire at a time when fan engagement and passion is already near an all-time low.

Sunday, Hocutt said that the Red Raider fan base simply needed to have its passion lit again.  It appears that hiring Matt Wells would not only extinguish that fire for most fans, it would douse it with ice cold water.