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Texas Tech football: Spooky possibilities for Red Raider fans to consider

By Matthew Conner

LONDON - OCTOBER 31: A child enjoys traditional candle-lit Halloween pumpkins on October 31, 2007 in London. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
LONDON - OCTOBER 31: A child enjoys traditional candle-lit Halloween pumpkins on October 31, 2007 in London. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
(Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /

In hiring Matt Wells, Tech may have made the worst hire of the four Big 12 teams that changed coaches in the offseason

This season marked the first time that four Big 12 teams made coaching changes in the same offseason.  At first glance, that figured to make Tech’s path back to conference relevance seem a bit easier given that they were essentially on pace with a third of their league brethren.

But after eight games of the 2019 season, it is fair to wonder if Tech made the worst of the four hires after last year.  At least through 2/3 of the season, there’s reason to suggest that they may have.

The stock of Kansas State’s Chris Klieman is soaring right now after his team just knocked off No. 5 Oklahoma 48-41 last Saturday in Manhattan.  The former North Dakota State head coach has already guided his team to a 5-2 record and has wins over Mississippi State, TCU, and the Sooners in the bag.

KSU is back in the top 25 this week for the second time this year.  That’s an honor Tech is almost guaranteed not to receive in 2019 and proof of how much further ahead Klieman’s program is than Wells’.

Some may say that the cupboard in Manhattan was left more well-stocked than it was in Lubbock after last season and I don’t know enough about the Wildcat roster to know if that is true.  But I do know that Kleiman won four FCS National Championships and five Missouri Valley Conference titles in his time with the Bison.

Matt Wells has not won a title of any kind as a head coach.  On top of that, he appears to be facing more of an uphill battle with his new program than his counterpart in the Little Apple is.

Meanwhile, Neal Brown has West Virginia one game ahead of Tech in the loss column at the moment but the two teams will likely meet with matching 3-5 records next week after the Mountaineers play at Baylor this Saturday.

Brown, who has led his team to wins over Kansas and N.C. State, had a record of 18 games over .500 at Troy before he took over at WVU.   That’s eight games better than Wells, who was just 10 games over .500 at Utah State.  What’s more, Brown won a 2017 Sun Belt title to give him one more championship than Tech’s head coach has on his resume.

Then there’s Les Miles at Kansas.  With the 2007 national championship and two SEC titles to his name, he’s got a standout resume.

Now, he’s proving that he’s willing to adapt to the new landscape of college football by allowing his offensive coordinator to spread the field and throw the ball.  It appears that his wacky energy has breathed some life into the downtrodden KU football program and if he’s willing to welcome new approaches and allow his coordinators to innovate, he may be the man that can finally pull the Jayhawks out of the Big 12 basement.

Thus far, Wells has had the least impressive start of these four coaches.  He’s the only one without at least two wins over Power 5 teams and his team has looked the worst of the four.

Of course, it is too early to judge which of these men will be successful.  But if Tech really did make the worst of these five hires, the Red Raiders may find the future as terrifying as the present has proven to be.

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