Texas Tech football: Concerning trends regarding Matt Wells’ career

He’s never built a winning program from the ground up

Calling our first category a “trend” might not be exactly correct given that Wells has had such a brief run as a head coach (7 full seasons).  But however you want to phrase it, there’s reason to be concerned by the fact that he’s never built a successful program from the ground up.  Thus, why should we be confident that he will be able to do so in Lubbock?

Remember that when he took over the reins of the Utah State Aggies in 2013, he benefitted from the work of his predecessor, Gary Andersen, who is the man that rebuilt the program in Logan.  Prior to Andersen’s arrival in 2009, the Aggies had undergone eleven consecutive losing seasons but by the time he left after the 2012 campaign, the program had put together back-to-back over .500 seasons, each of which included bowl appearances and the second of which brought a conference title to USU.

Now, in fairness, Wells was on staff as an assistant for the 2011 and 2012 seasons but simply being part of the rebuild is a far cry from being in charge of it.  That’s because Wells had no part in putting together that coaching staff, he wasn’t the man who was tasked with defining the culture in the football building, nor was he asked to be the face of the program.

Thus, it was a stretch for Kirby Hocutt to assume that he would be able to build something from the ground up in Lubbock.  And make no mistake, starting over is essentially what Wells was tasked with doing.  When he arrived, Tech was already at its lowest point since the Jerry Moore era of the 1980s with Kliff Kingsbury failing to produce a winning season in his final three attempts.

Unlike was the case at Utah State when Wells was handed the keys to the castle, there was no surge or boost to be gained from the work of the previous staff.  Rather, Wells has been tasked with rebuilding a program that was already on a crumbling foundation.  The problem is that he’s never had to do that in his career and thus far, we’ve seen no signs to indicate that he’s capable of accomplishing that difficult chore.