Texas Tech football: Matt Wells bungles QB situation in loss to Iowa State
In the Texas Tech football team’s loss to Iowa State on Saturday, Matt Wells’ completely bungled his team’s QB situation.
What took so long? Literally, everyone who watched Saturday’s 31-15 loss to Iowa State could see that a change needed to be made. Everyone but Matt Wells apparently.
Only after three-and-a-half quarters of absolute incompetence from starting QB Alan Bowman, Wells finally turned to backup QB Henry Colombi after the Cyclones had long since put the game to bed. It’s perhaps the worst coaching decision of Wells’ tenure and yet another data point for his detractors to point to as he now sits at just 1-3 on the season and 5-11 as head coach in Lubbock.
Bowman, who practiced only sparingly this week, got the start just one game after leaving the Kansas State contest with an ankle injury. And whether it was due to lingering effects from that injury, rust from a lack of practice reps, or simply terrible play, the sophomore played his worst game as a Red Raider.
Completing only 13 of 22 passes for a mere 97 yards, Bowman was unable to lead his team to a single point and only four first downs in nine possessions of action. Yet, Matt Wells saw fit to leave Bowman in the game until there was no chance of a Red Raider comeback.
Despite desperately needing a spark for his team, the second-year head coach continued to run an ineffective and flummoxed Bowman out to lead the offense leaving Red Raider fans everywhere to question the logic. And when Colombi did enter the game with 8:15 to play, all he did was lead Tech on its only offensive scoring drive of the game, which only added to the angst of the fan base…at least those that were masochistic enough to still be watching at that point.
The junior finished the contest 10 of 12 passing for 110 yards and a TD surpassing all of Bowman’s stats in just half of a quarter.
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So again it is worth asking, what took so long? Why did Wells and offensive coordinator David Yost essentially give up on this game by allowing a QB to remain in the game when he’d done nothing to warrant the honor of leading the offense?
There was a competent, healthy, and prepared backup ready to give his team some hope who was simply standing on the sidelines. And don’t forget that Colombi had received the lion’s share of the first-team reps during practice this week meaning that he was far more prepared to face the complicated 3-3-5 Cyclone defense.
What’s more, we were coming off of a week in which the Utah State transfer led the offense more efficiently than Bowman did in Manhattan. Prior to his injury against the Wildcats, Bowman was just 4-7 passing for 23 yards and during his stint in that game, the offense was sluggish and out of sorts just as it was against the Cyclones.
Enter Colombi, who completed 30-42 passes for 244 yards and a pair of TDs. What’s more, he led his team to three-straight TDs to open the second half giving the Red Raiders their only lead of the game 21-17 in that 31-21 loss.
This latest coaching blunder from Wells comes just two weeks after his team blew a 15-point lead against rival Texas due in large part to his decision to go with a “sky kick” late in the fourth quarter. A decision that turned a huge portion of the fan base even further against him than it already have been.
Against the Cyclones, Wells refused to shake things up and essentially hung the rest of his team out to dry in a second half in which the defense rebounded from an awful start to the game to allow only 10 points. Now, Wells’ popularity in West Texas is lower than the water table of the Ogallala aquifer in the middle of a drought.
It’s just the latest reason for Red Raider fans to doubt their head coach’s competence and yet another week in which fan apathy is only certain to increase as the Wells continues to show no signs of being the coach capable of fixing the tire fire that is Texas Tech football.
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Everyone knows who should have played QB against Iowa State. And now, Matt Wells does too. It’s just too bad that he figured it out only after the game had already been lost.