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Texas Tech football: Matt Wells has final chance to lay groundwork with home fans

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 07: Running back Ta'Zhawn Henry #26 and head coach Matt Wells of Texas Tech stand in the tunnel before the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the UTEP Miners at Jones AT&T Stadium on September 07, 2019 in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 07: Running back Ta'Zhawn Henry #26 and head coach Matt Wells of Texas Tech stand in the tunnel before the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the UTEP Miners at Jones AT&T Stadium on September 07, 2019 in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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Tonight against Kansas State, Texas Tech football head coach Matt Wells has one final opportunity to lay some positive groundwork with the home fans.

The first year of the Matt Wells experiment is rapidly coming to a close.  There would be no better way for the first-year Texas Tech football head coach to close out the home portion of 2019 than by giving his constituency what it desperately needs, a win at Jones Stadium to feel good about.

With a 6 pm kickoff, the crowd tonight will be as representative as any November showing will be for a team likely to miss out on a bowl birth and simply playing for pride.  Thus, sending fans home for the final time this year with some positive vibes would be significant for Wells.

Thus far, we’ve seen nothing from his program to change anyone’s mind about the man in charge.  If you believed that he was the right hire last December, you probably look at the injuries this team has suffered and think that they’ve hamstrung the new coaching staff this year.   Likewise, the fight and grit that the Red Raiders showed in close losses to Baylor, TCU, and Iowa State are probably enough to give you hope for next season.

However, those who believe that Wells was an awful choice by Kirby Hocutt haven’t seen enough to change that stance.  If anything, a 4-6 record, a pedestrian offense by this program’s standards, and the continuation of this program’s defensive struggles have likely cemented among those fans the belief that Wells isn’t the man that will turn Tech football around.

But I still believe that the vast majority of the fans in scarlet and black are in the middle.  While most had some type of opinion on Wells when he was hired, most of us have reserved the right to withhold judgment for at least another season.

However, we don’t have the luxury of waiting until we know how next year plays out before we decide whether we are going to invest financially in this program for the 2020 season, especially in regard to season tickets.  Though next year’s schedule is loaded with Texas, OU, Arizona, Baylor, WVU, and Kansas headed to The Jones, the reality is that many long-time fans (myself included) are on the fence about whether we can give of ourselves next year what we’ve given for so long without being even slightly rewarded.

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Without question, the last impression a team leaves upon its fan base matters.  If this program can come out and show improvement at home and beat a KSU team that has been ranked at points this year and has a winning record, there’s no question that some on-the-fence fans will be persuaded to give this coaching staff and program another shot next year.  That will only increase if Tech can follow up a win tonight with a win in Austin on Friday.

We’ve seen the final two games of the year have long-lasting ramifications on this program in recent years.  When Tech stunned Texas in Austin in 2017 with an improbable 10-point 4th-quarter comeback, it essentially saved Kliff Kingsbury from the chopping block for one year.

Again last year, Hocutt entered the final two games of the season struggling to make a decision on Kingsbury, but when he saw his football team lay two huge eggs against Kansas State and Baylor, he had the decision made for him and most inside the program suggest that the loss to Kansas State in the second-to-last game was what essentially ended the Kingsbury era.

While there will be no coaching change made this year, regardless of what happens in the next two games, there remains some importance to how this year finishes.  Even just reaching six wins would be considered a major building block for Wells, especially doing so with essentially his third-string QB.  A home win tonight is a requirement for such an occurrence.

This team has been awful in Big 12 home games for far too long.  That’s not a way to build your fanbase, especially as attendance figures drop across the nation.

Of course, a win over the Wildcats won’t cure all that ails Tech football and it won’t bring the skeptical fans back en masse.  And the majority of the fans that show up tonight will be of the most dedicated variety so they likely are not going to be swayed by the outcome of one game.

Still, this team needs to return to the days when the fans expected good times at home games.  Winning meaningful games at The Jones is where this rebuild has to begin and there’s only one more chance to do that in 2019.

Next. They myth surrounding night games. dark

Tech has managed to win at least two home Big 12 games just twice in the last six seasons (2013, 2015).  But a win tonight would put this year’s at that rather lofty number after already having beaten Oklahoma State in Lubbock this year.  While two home conference wins is nothing to crow about, the truth is that it is somewhat of a step in the right direction and that’s what Matt Wells needs to show his fan base more than anything else.

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