Not benching Bowman earlier in Ames
When the Texas Tech football team faced Iowa State in Ames this year, the Red Raiders weren’t supposed to beat the Cyclones. However, they got a good enough showing from the defense to be able to pull the upset.
In fact, allowing just 31 points, defensive coordinator Keith Patterson’s side of the ball hung in well enough to allow the offense to steal a win. Unfortunately, OC David Yost’s unit didn’t hold up its end of the bargain.
This game will forever be remembered for the decision to keep QB Alan Bowman in the game until late in the fourth quarter despite his struggles. He was just 13/22 passing for a mere 97 yards with a quarterback rating of 25.8 in the worst showing of his career.
Yet, Wells decided to give Bowman eight possessions to try to get the offense out of its rut. And by the time he gave backup Henry Colombi a shot to see if he could move the ball, it was far too late as Tech trailed 31-7.
As for proof that Wells’ decision to stick with Bowman was the wrong one, all we have to do is to look at the fact that Colombi led the offense to a TD on his first drive of the game.
What’s more, he had played fairly well in relief of Bowman in Manhattan the week prior. Facing Kansas State after Bowman left that game with a sprained ankle, Colombi led the offense to three-straight scores and a brief 21-17 fourth-quarter lead.
In all, both Bowman and Colombi led the offense for eight full drives (not counting end of the half situations) over the course of the KSU and ISU games. Bowman led the offense to no points while Colombi led the way to 28 points and had another drive end in a missed FG.
In other words, everyone knew that he was the better option at the time and yet it took until the Iowa State game was all but over with before Wells made a change. Fortunately, he did stick with Colombi following the ISU game but had he been wise enough to make a change at halftime of that game when the score was just 21-7, Tech might have had a fighting shot at coming away with the win. However, he didn’t as yet another questionable in-game decision led to a Red Raider loss.