Texas Tech football: Why K-State has owned the Red Raiders lately

KSU has had more stability at the head coach position than Texas Tech

College football programs are defined by their head coach.  The man in charge almost always puts out a team that mirrors his personality, regardless of whether or not the traits he passes down are positive or negative.

When schools have constant turnover at that position, they tend to lose their identity leading to inconsistent play and maddening results.  Unfortunately, Tech and KSU could not have been more different in regard to head coaching stability over the past 12 years.

Since 2011, four different men have tried to fix the Red Raiders,  But neither Tommy Tuberville, Kliff Kingsbury, nor Matt Wells could turn Tech’s fortunes around.  Meanwhile, the jury is still out on McGuire.

That means that the Texas Tech head coaching position has seen turnover on average every three seasons.  Of course, that’s no way for any program to define an identity.  Nor is it long enough for a coach to get his players to personify the traits that the head coach values.

Think about the differences between what Tuberville and Kingsbury wanted in their program.  They couldn’t have been more opposite in what they valued and that’s why the transition from Tuberville to Kingsbury was rough.

Similarly, the change from Wells to Kingsbury was turbulent on the field.  That’s just the reality that almost every program faces when making a change at the top.

Kansas State has been on the other end of that spectrum though.  Over the last 15 years, KSU has had only two different head coaches.  The legendary Bill Snyder saw his second stint with the program last from 2009-2018 and Chris Klieman has been in charge since then.

What’s more, when Klieman took over, he didn’t try to drastically alter the personality of the program.  Rather, he continued to play the brand of football that made KSU so successful during the Snyder era.  Sure, he’s made some tweaks but he’s also entrusted important aspects of the program to Snyder disciples such as current offensive coordinator Collin Klein, who played QB for Snyder in the early 2010s.

So while Tech has been wandering the desert looking for an identity, KSU has been building around the same core principles both on and off the field.  Thus, it is no wonder that they have been able to make the winning plays that Tech has not since 2011.