Joey McGuire is not Matt Wells
We don’t know how good of a head coach Joey McGuire is. He’s never led a college program. Thus, his in-game decision-making, his strategic tactics, and his overall ability to manage situations on Saturdays will be worth monitoring. But no matter how green he may be, he has to be a better coach than his predecessor and that will make this year’s team better.
Matt Wells was one of the worst coaches in Texas Tech football history. His .433 winning percentage is third-worst in the history of the program and second-worst since 1929. Only Jerry Moore (.309 winning percentage from 1981-85) and Grady Higginbotham (.200 winning percentage in 1929) were bigger failures than Wells.
What’s more, Wells made more head-scratching decisions than any coach in the modern era of the program. There was the second-down field goal attempt gone awry against TCU in 2020, there was the ill-fated onside kick against Oklahoma State that same year, and there was the infamous “sky kick” against Texas that season as well. What’s more, there were numerous failed fake punts and fake fieldgoals and too many fourth-down gaffes to recount.
Also, Wells seemed incapable of getting his team ready to play on a consistent basis. In fewer than three full seasons in Lubbock, his teams were defeated by 25 points or more five times. That’s 22.7% of the games he coached.
So while we don’t know what McGuire will be as an in-game coach, we do know that if he is simply a run-of-the-mill decision-maker and if he’s able to have his team compete on a weekly basis, he’ll be better than Matt Wells. Of course, that’s a low bar to clear and our expectations of McGuire are much greater. But still, just by having a competent head coach, Tech will take a step forward in 2022.