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Texas Tech football: Counting down Matt Wells’ worst in-game decisions

By Matthew Conner

Oct 10, 2020; Ames, Iowa, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Matt Wells looks on against the Iowa State Cyclones at Jack Trice Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Powers-USA TODAY Sports.
Oct 10, 2020; Ames, Iowa, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Matt Wells looks on against the Iowa State Cyclones at Jack Trice Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Powers-USA TODAY Sports. /
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LUBBOCK, TEXAS – OCTOBER 24: Head coach Matt Wells of the Texas Tech Red Raiders walks onto the field before the college football game against the West Virginia Mountaineers on October 24, 2020 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS – OCTOBER 24: Head coach Matt Wells of the Texas Tech Red Raiders walks onto the field before the college football game against the West Virginia Mountaineers on October 24, 2020 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /

After another questionable in-game decision backfired on Texas Tech football head coach Matt Wells, let’s count down his five worst calls.

There are some coaches who have a luxury that Matt Wells doesn’t.  Whereas the Texas Tech head coach goes into every game knowing his team has almost no margin for error, other coaches have rosters that can overwhelm opposing teams and minimize any coaching mistakes that might occur.

Thus, Wells can’t afford to put his team at a disadvantage the way he so often has while in charge of the Red Raiders.  After all, he doesn’t have the type of talent that can win when he makes decisions that diminish his team’s chance of victory.

Time and again Wells has made mistakes that seem to put his team at a disadvantage.  That’s one reason why the fan base is almost completely on board with the thought of his dismissal at the end of the season.

That’s not the type of coach we were promised by Kirby Hocutt two years ago when Kliff Kingsbury was fired.  But unfortunately, we’ve seen Wells make repeated decisions that hurt his team.

Were he winning games, we might be able to look past his flubs.  But after Saturday’s loss to TCU, he’s now just 6-13 as Red Raider head coach.  What’s more, he’s just 3-12 in Big 12 games.

It’s the continuation of a disturbing trend in his career.  In five of his last six years, he’s failed to produce a winning regular-season record while in four of those seasons, he has gone without a winning conference mark.

We can’t help but be alarmed at those numbers.  And what’s more, another recent development at his former school doesn’t paint him in much better of a light.

This weekend, Utah State fired head coach Gary Andersen who was not only the head coach of the Aggies from 2009-2012 to proceed Wells, he was rehired by the Aggies to replace Wells in 2019.

Despite being on the job again in Logan, Utah for just 16 games, including an 0-3 start to 2020, he was shown the door.  But how does that impact the perception of Wells?

Consider that the program Wells left behind was far from healthy.  Even though the Aggies had 2020 first-round NFL Draft pick, Jordan Love, playing QB last season, they were barely able to break the .500 barrier in 2019 at 7-6 overall, and this year, the talent Wells amassed in the last few years appears to be incapable of winning at even the Mountain West Conference level.

Thus, we are left to call into question whether he is capable of building a program that can sustain success.  After all, two of his three winning seasons in Logan came in the first two years after he took over for Andersen meaning that he was riding the wave of success built by his predecessor.

Now, Texas Tech fans all know that he is a questionable in-game decision-maker (and that’s putting it kindly).  To understand just how poor he is at that critical aspect of being a head coach, let’s count down his five worst in-game decisions during his time as head coach in Lubbock.

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