Texas Tech football: 2019 report card for Matt Wells

Developing a winning culture: B

It’s tough to give a guy who went just 4-8 high marks when it comes to developing a winning culture in the locker room but because the seeds of the culture he’s promised to instill have already started to take root, Wells gets a  solid “B” in that category.

This is a rather subjective area of the program.  That’s no real way to measure a program’s culture statistically unless you point to the scoreboard.

But let’s think about what we wanted to see from this program in regard to intangibles.  Most Red Raider fans hoped that a coaching change would bring about a renewed sense of toughness, resilience, and discipline inside the locker room and though there is work left to be done in those areas, we saw signs of positive momentum.

There’s no way to deny that the 2019 Red Raiders fought as hard as we could ask in every game this year.  That’s not something we could have said about the 2018 team or previous versions of Texas Tech football.

For instance, against both Iowa State and TCU, the Red Raiders fought back from 20-plus-point deficits in the first half to eventually have a shot to win both games in the 4th quarter  That’s a sign of a team’s culture and the attitude being instilled in the locker room.

Additionally, despite being undermanned against teams like Baylor, Texas, and OU, there was never a point when anyone believed that Wells’ team simply threw in the towel.  Of course, there were times when they were clearly overmatched by their opponent’s talent advantage, such as was the case in Norman and Austin, but never did Tech fail to put forth maximum effort.

In terms of discipline, Tech took a measurable step forward in terms of penalty yards per game.  Being assessed an average of 57.9 penalty yards per game, Wells’ team was No. 83 in the country.  The previous year, Tech was No. 124 overall at 74.1 yards per game.

So because Tech showed more fight than in previous years and because the penalty woes that have plagued this program for far too long showed marked improvement, Wells deserves a “B” for the culture he brought to the program in his first season.