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Texas Tech football: Why Matt Wells failed as head coach in Lubbock

By Matthew Conner

Sep 12, 2020; Lubbock, Texas, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Matt Wells checks the score board in the second half against the Houston Baptist Huskies at Jones AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 12, 2020; Lubbock, Texas, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Matt Wells checks the score board in the second half against the Houston Baptist Huskies at Jones AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports /
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AMES, IA – OCTOBER 10: Head coach Matt Wells of the Texas Tech Red Raiders coaches during pregame warm ups at Jack Trice Stadium on October 10, 2020 in Ames, Iowa. The Iowa State Cyclones won 31-15 over the Texas Tech Red Raiders. (Photo by David K Purdy/Getty Images)
AMES, IA – OCTOBER 10: Head coach Matt Wells of the Texas Tech Red Raiders coaches during pregame warm ups at Jack Trice Stadium on October 10, 2020 in Ames, Iowa. The Iowa State Cyclones won 31-15 over the Texas Tech Red Raiders. (Photo by David K Purdy/Getty Images) /

Too many in-game blunders

A good head coach is supposed to manage the game to put his team in the best position to win.  That’s especially true of a coach who does not call plays on either side of the football, as was the case with Wells.

But time and again, the now-former Red Raider head coach put his team in awful situations due to some unfathomable decisions.  And those in-game gaffes likely cost Wells his job.

Wells’ most infamous decision was the call to kick a field goal on second down in the 4th quarter of the 2020 TCU game.  Trailing by nine points late in the game, Tech did need two scores to win so the analytics might have said that kicking the FG at that moment of the game was the wise play.

But common sense said otherwise.  It was foolish to ask a kicker in Trey Wolff who had made just one FG on the year to that point, to hit a 37-yard FG under pressure.  What’s more, on that drive, Tech was rolling offensively as the Red Raiders had picked up 63 yards in eight plays and appeared destined for the endzone against a tired TCU defense.  But of course, we all know how Wells’ decision turned out as Wolff was off the mark and the game was lost because of an ill-fated gamble on Wells’ part.

However, there are so many more stupid decisions that Wells made.  There was the “sky kick” against Texas in 2020 which set the Longhorns up with fantastic field position and jumpstarted their comeback win from 15 points down in the final three minutes.

Don’t forget about the surprise onside kick that he called for last season against Oklahoma State, a kick that came with Tech in the lead.  You might remember that it was returned for a TD by the Cowboys thus completely killing all of Tech’s momentum in that contest.

We could go on, there are so many more examples of Wells’ game mismanagement that we could write a book on them.  But the point is that he repeatedly put his team behind the eight-ball by making terrible decisions over the course of a game and those decisions almost always led to losses.  And those losses led to his demise on the South Plains.

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