Wreck'Em Red
Fansided

Texas Tech basketball: Battle for Chris Beard is Kirby Hocutt’s most important moment

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TX - NOVEMBER 24: Texas Tech Red Raiders athletic director Kirby Hocutt on the field at a time out during the game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Baylor Bears on November 24, 2018 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Baylor defeated Texas Tech 35-24. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TX - NOVEMBER 24: Texas Tech Red Raiders athletic director Kirby Hocutt on the field at a time out during the game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Baylor Bears on November 24, 2018 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Baylor defeated Texas Tech 35-24. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

In desperate need of a win, Kirby Hocutt faces his greatest moment as Texas Tech athletic director as he tried to keep Chris Beard in Lubbock.

There was once a time when Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt could do no wrong in the eyes of Red Raider fans.  But a two-year run of questionable coaching hires and controversial firings has tarnished Hocutt’s standing in the minds of a significant portion of the fan base, most importantly being those of influential donors.   Now, however, Hocutt is faced with a huge opportunity to regain his status as the oracle of Texas Tech sports.

Make no mistake, hiring Chris Beard remains Hocutt’s greatest achievement as Texas Tech athletic director.  It’s brought a once-dormant program into the national spotlight and it nearly resulted in a national title.

Texas Tech has become a basketball school as Red Raider hoops is now the hottest attraction in West Texas.  Thus, Hocutt can ill-afford to let his greatest accomplishment jump ship to Texas Tech’s most hated rival.

That’s because Hocutt finds himself in a rather precarious position as Texas Tech AD.  It’s been since he hired Beard in 2016 that any of his head coach hirings have panned out.  That’s quite a long run without a win.

Just consider all the losses he’s sustained in the last three years alone.  In 2018, Hocutt had to fire football coach Kliff Kingsbury after the Texas Tech icon managed to go just 35-40 in six seasons on the job.

What’s more, Hocutt’s hand-picked successor for the beloved Kingsbury, Matt Wells, has mustered just an 8-14 mark in two seasons since his arrival.  In fact, Wells has been so bad at his job and so unpopular with the fan base that he came within an eyelash of being fired in December.

More from Wreck'Em Red

But Hocutt’s losing streak stretches beyond the gridiron and to another one of the university’s most beloved programs, Lady Raider basketball.  In August, Hocutt was forced to fire Lady Raider head coach Marlene Stollings after allegations of player abuse surfaced in the national media.   It was truly a black eye for one of Hocutt’s hires, one that was charged with returning the once-proud Lady Raider program to respectability after nearly two decades of hardship.

Hocutt would then sustain another black eye just over a month later when softball head coach Adrian Gregory was forced to resign after similar accusations of player mistreatment surfaced in her program.

Thus, on his watch, Hocutt has failed to be connected enough with the programs he is supposed to shepherd to know that there was player mistreatment happening right under his nose.  It was a horrible look for the leader of the athletic department and it forced us to question whether Hocutt should be held responsible.

But Hocutt survived those controversies and then was able to convince the university administration to keep Wells in place for at least one more season.  In the process, it seemed as if he had saved his own hide.  And all along, he had the success of the Chris Beard hire to point to as his saving grace.

In fact, he’s so tied to Beard that there is a clause in Beard’s current contract that reduces Beard’s buyout if Hocutt is no longer Texas Tech AD.  And the relationship between Hocutt and Beard is without question the biggest ace Kirby has up his sleeve.  But now, he could lose his most valuable asset to a Big 12 rival.

That’s why this is Hocutt’s greatest challenge and potentially the crowning moment of his time as leader of the Texas Tech athletic department.  Keep Beard and he once again is seen as the conquering hero and one who was able to fend off an invasion from one of the most powerful entities in college athletics.  Lose Beard and he would have failed to keep the most beloved head coach your university has seen perhaps in its entire history as his losing streak on the coaching front would grow immeasurably.

Let’s be honest.  There are only four programs on campus that the majority of fans care to emotionally invest in.  Right now, Texas Tech football is in shambles and the Lady Raiders are the definition of irrelevance.  That’s half of the big four programs in Hocutt’s athletic department that are failing miserably due to blunders that he’s made on the coaching front.

But men’s basketball and baseball are experiencing their golden age and for those reasons, Hocutt has been able to maintain his standing with his superiors.  However, his basketball program is under attack from the most hated of possible invaders and Hocutt must figure out a way to keep in the fold the most cherished figure this university currently has.

If he can, it will be his greatest achievement as Texas Tech AD.  But if he can’t, another key brick in the wall he has built will have crumbled away leaving many to wonder if there is really any reason for Hocutt to retain his job.

Related Story. Why Tech is a better fit for Beard than UT. light

Home/Texas Tech Basketball