Texas Tech football: How 10 men contributed to decline of Red Raider football

Gerald Myers

Let’s step away from the end of the Mike Leach era and look at how the years following that dark time have also contributed to the downfall of Texas Tech football.  Because though the program’s “Air Raid” renaissance was cut short by the Pirate’s dismissal, there remained an opportunity for Texas Tech to capitalize on that momentum and continue to be a relevant factor in the Big 12 and nationally.

But in hiring Tommy Tuberville, then-athletic director Gerald Myers did as much damage to Red Raider football as just about anyone over the past decade.  Unlike the man mentioned above, Myers’ actions were made in good faith but his awful decision to hire the most polarizing coach in the modern era of the program had long-lasting ramifications.

Looking back, what is so egregious about Myers’ actions is that the then 73-year old, who was just months away from announcing his intention to retire after 13 years on the job, had a complete lack of creativity when coming up with his pool of potential candidates.  Reportedly,  the three prime targets were Tuberville, Tommy Bowden and Texas Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeil.

Let that sink in.

That list is comprised of a coach in Tuberville who was just two years removed from resigning his position at Auburn after a dreadful 5-7 season in 2008, a coach in Bowden who resigned in the middle of the 2008 season after his team got off to a 3-3 start including a 1-2 conference record and an assistant in McNeil who had never even been a serious candidate for a major head coaching job despite being a coordinator for over a decade at that point.

That’s it.  That was the pool of candidates Gerald Myers came up with.

Those were the three men he considered hiring to help continue the upward trajectory of Texas Tech football.  Two coaches past their prime whose careers were spiraling downward and a journeyman coordinator that did not have any experience at a BCS program other than Texas Tech.

Where was the creativity Myers showed in 2000 when he hired Leach?  Where were the outside the box candidates that could have further bolstered the program’s reputation as a college football trendsetter?  Myers had an opportunity with this hire to stop the bleeding and stabilize a program coming off back-to-back nine-win seasons for only the second time in school history but he failed to do so and instead only helped to expedite the decline of Red Raider football.

Maybe Myers was conned by Tuberville’s used car salesman persona.  Maybe he was, like so many people that close to retirement, mailing it in at that point as he looked towards his golden years.

Maybe there were other influences that forced him into making the uninspiring and ultimately ill-fated hire of Tuberville.  But whatever the reason, we must not overlook the role Myers’ decision to bring one of the most toxic people in Texas Tech history to Lubbock played in furthering the collapse of Red Raider football.