Texas Tech football: Best debut seasons by a Red Raider head coach
Rex Dockery 1978: 7-4
When Vanderbilt offensive coordinator Rex Dockery took over the program in 1978, the Red Raiders were coming off three-straight winning seasons under Steve Sloan, who had taken the program to back-to-back bowl games. Thus, expectations were high for the first-time college head coach.
Dockery put together an impressive debut season going 7-4 overall and 5-3 in the SWC. His team’s signature win that season was a 22-21 upset of No. 5 Houston in Lubbock in the second-to-last game of the year. It was the final game in a six-game winning streak that saw the Raiders beat No. 18 SMU in Lubbock the week before as well as New Mexico, Rice, Baylor, and TCU.
But like Carlen’s 1970 team, Dockery’s squad was done in by some highly-ranked opponents. In fact, all four of Tech’s losses in 1978 came to teams in the top-10.
A 17-9 season-opening loss to No. 9 USC in Los Angeles, a 27-7 loss to No. 6 Texas in Lubbock, and a 38-9 loss at No. 7 Texas A&M got the Red Raiders off to a 1-3 start with a week-two win over Arizona in Lubbock the only bright spot in the season’s first month.
But Tech rebounded well with the six-consecutive wins during which four of the wins were by double-digits. Unfortunately, that was not enough to get the Red Raiders to their third-straight bowl game.
Ultimately, Dockery was unable to build off his solid first season. After earning SWC Coach of the Year honors in 1978, he was unable to put together another winning season in Lubbock going 3-6-2 and 5-6 in his next two years before being replaced by Jerry Moore.
It appears like Dockery’s initial success was a carryover from the foundation Steve Sloan built in the three previous years. The same might be true of Matt Wells’ first season at the helm at Utah State.
Replacing Gary Andersen, who had taken the Aggies to their first two bowl games since 1997 in the previous two years, Wells had a terrific first two seasons winning a combined 19 games before his program’s fortunes turned with three-straight losing seasons.
Sometimes, incoming coaches have the benefit of taking over a program already stocked with enough talent to win. The challenge then becomes sustaining that talent level and repeating the success of the previous staff.
At his introductory press conference, Wells said that he views Texas Tech has a program ready to reload, not rebuild and with a QB as good as Alan Bowman, he could be right. Hopefully, he will be able to not only get off to a strong start like Rex Dockery but that he will sustain that success throughout his tenure.