Texas Tech football: 5 areas where Red Raiders must be better in 2021

Situational football

The last area of the game where Tech has to be better is one that can’t be quantified by stats but is illustrated anecdotally.  Though there isn’t a statistical category for what most refer to a “situational football”, it is a key aspect of the game.

Being good in “situational football” means that a team executes in key moments, often when called upon to do something unusual or outside the natural flow of the game.  For instance, can you properly execute a surprise onside kick or do you let that situation result in a kick return for a TD as Tech did at Oklahoma State last season?

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Similarly, “situational football” may ask a team to score an OT touchdown to keep a game alive rather than going 4-and-out as Tech did in OT of the loss to Texas in 2020.  Or perhaps “situational football” requires you to successfully execute a “sky kick” to eliminate a big return rather than just pop the ball up 20 yards downfield as Tech also did against Texas.

But this doesn’t just extend to the players.  In fact, the person in the program that must be the most on-point when it comes to “situational football” is the head coach.

That means that in 2020, Wells has to stop making bizarre fake punt decisions, stop calling for ill-timed field goals, and stop going for it on 4th down when it isn’t necessary.  In other words, he has to stop putting his team in awful situations because of boneheaded coaching decisions.

Of course, that’s been an unfortunate hallmark of Wells’ since he arrived for the 2019 season and those that followed his program at Utah State will tell you that he had his share of questionable game-killing decisions while head coach at his alma mater.  But perhaps this year he will have more trust in his team, especially his defense, and that will lead to fewer ill-advised gambles.  If that’s the case, he could change the perception of both himself and his program and that’s what he most desperately needs to accomplish this fall.