So Texas Tech has hired Utah State’s Matt Wells as the new football coach.
Glancing at my Facebook feed, not everyone is thrilled with Kirby Hocutt’s decision.
Example: “Does Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt turning to Utah State’s Matt Wells to be the new head coach make any sense to anybody? Who gave him the crack pipe?”
Another example: “Obviously the AD needs to be replaced too.”
There are many other examples floating out there questioning the new coach’s overall record, his experience recruiting in Texas and seriously questioning if this is an improvement over Kliff Kingsbury.
I wish Kliff Kingsbury had been more successful and led the Red Raiders to a level we all would have liked to see.
Kliff has been a class act who represented Texas Tech well.
Unfortunately it didn’t work out.
So now Kirby is being vilified, by some, because he didn’t hire a big name who will lead Tech to a national title faster than we can all sing “The Matador Song.”
Well … I trust Kirby.
There are no guarantees, but Kirby brought us Chris Beard and Tim Tadlock.
Men’s basketball went to the Elite Eight last year for the first time in school history. Tadlock’s baseball team has been to the College World Series three out of the last five years.
Maybe Kirby knows something a bunch of twits with a Facebook page don’t know.
I don’t think any of his critics have run a Power Five conference athletic program. Kirby has to generally rave reviews and represented Texas Tech well on the College Football Playoff committee.
I trust Kirby.
There was also a “Return Mike Leach to Tech” frenzy on Facebook the past few days.
I had one of my most enjoyable lunches with the Pirate about ten years ago. Funny guy. I have a lot of friends in town who love Mike. His teams were exciting and the 2008 season was amazing.
But his teams never won an outright Big 12 title, never made a BCS bowl game and did not win a national title.
You can’t go back again.
It’s time to go forward.
Guns Up for Matt Wells. May his teams take Texas Tech football to an elite level and win with Honor Evermore.