Texas Tech football: Best debut seasons by a Red Raider head coach

Tommy Tuberville 2010: 8-5

Stepping into a hornets’ nest the year after Leach’s unexpected firing, Tommy Tuberville put together an 8-5 season in 2010.  But going just 3-5 in the Big 12, Tech finished only fifth out of six teams in the Big 12 South.

The signature win of that season was a 24-17 home victory over No. 14 Missouri.  But the rest of Tech’s wins were against unranked teams including Baylor, Colorado, New Mexico, SMU, Weber State, Houston, and Northwestern in the Ticket City Bowl.

Meanwhile, the Red Raiders lost home games to No. 4 Texas and No. 18 Oklahoma State and road games at No. 16 Oklahoma, Iowa State and Texas A&M.  Each one of those defeats was by double-digits. It was a nice start for Tuberbille but the next season, he led Tech to its first losing year since 1992.

One similarity between Tuberville’s first season and Wells’ is that both coaches made a significant attempt at changing the culture in the program after taking over for a very popular coach who was ultimately fired by the university.  Like Wells, Tuberbille brought in almost an entirely new coaching staff with all but one of his assistants never having coached at Tech or having no ties to the university.

Following the high-flying Leach years, Tuberville tried unsuccessfully to bring about a new air of discipline in the program.  The problem was that he did not display the necessary leadership to see those changes come to fruition.

Wells has also been preaching responsibility and accountability since his first address to his new team.  The hope is that he will be invested enough in building the program in Lubbock that he is able to actually see what he has been preaching become reality.