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

No. 5: A fake FG against Arizona

We start our countdown with the first time we really saw Wells in-game buffoonery first-hand.  It came in 2019’s 28-14 loss to Arizona, Wells’ third game as head coach of the Red Raiders.

In the second quarter of that game, Tech trailed 13-7.  After driving the football to the Wildcat 15, the Red Raiders stalled out and brought on the kicking team instead of leaving the offense on the field on 4th-and-3.

But rather than kicking the ball, a fake FG was attempted that called for holder Mark Richardson to run right up the middle of the defense.  The play failed miserably as Richardson lost five yards on the play.

Think about how questionable that decision was.  At that point in the game, there was no reason to go for the extra four points as there was over half the contest remaining.  What’s more, three points would have cut the deficit to just a single FG making that the correct play.

Also, the design of the play was quite confounding.  Asking a backup walk-on to take the ball from a kneeling position and run right through the teeth of the on-rushing FG block team was akin to asking a feather to find its way through a brick wall.

Some of the blame for this ill-fated kick should fall on the special teams coordinator, Mark Tommerdahl, as he likely designed the fake and pushed for it if the opportunity raised.  But Wells had to sign off on it both as a play to be put in the gameplan and at the moment that it was called during the game.

It was a truly puzzling decision on Wells’ part but it didn’t cost his team that game.  However, we can’t say the same for the rest of the Wells blunders on this list.