Notebook: Wells previews Texas, talks recruiting and more

The final regular season game of the year is close as the Texas Tech Red Raiders will travel to Austin for their conference finale against the Longhorns.

Despite the results of the scoreboard, head coach Matt Wells was proud of his guys for the fight they have had the last few losses, which brings up the point that four of the last five games lost this season have been decided by three points or less, or what Wells said were all decided on the last play of the game or in the fourth quarter.

With that, the Longhorns have dropped their last two games as well, which ultimately posts an evidently interesting game this Friday. For the Longhorns, can they add another win to their resume before they head off to their bowl game? And for the Red Raiders, treat this game as your “bowl game” and can you walk out of Austin with a rivalry win and drop Texas to 6-6 on the year?

For coach Wells, this will be his first meeting with the Longhorns as head coach of Texas Tech. Wells thinks every game means something to the team as far as improvement and trying to build a program, but Wells knows the Friday finale will be a rivalry game to win.

“Texas is a tremendous program,” Wells said, “has been for many, many years. And it's an opponent that we'll have to play our very, very best to be in the game with and somebody that, I've known Tom for a long time, guys on their staff I've recruited, I've coached with. And so the amount of respect that our staff has for them is at a very high level. So, it will be a fun game to play in and it will be a tremendous challenge on Friday.”

Linebacker Riko Jeffers also took the podium and talked about Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger and the threat he is and the leader he has become for the horns.

“He's good at running,” Jeffers said. “He tucks the ball and he'll try to get as many yards as he can. And then he's pretty accurate with throwing. So it's not -- it's just this conference there is a lot of great dual-threat quarterbacks and it's just a great challenge to play against them on Saturdays.”

Wells also talked about the hype his players and the fanbase perhaps have for the final game of the season. Even though Wells preaches each game is unique and different, Wells knows this game means a little bit more.

“That's what we're trying to preach to our players,” Wells said, “that's what we're trying to instill in our players is the discipline and the accountability to invest prior to the game has to be at a consistent level and a high level to play at that level -- or the level you want. But in terms of the meaning, this is certainly a big rivalry and has been going on for a long time here to the people at Texas Tech. And I certainly heard about it the day I was hired, and so I have a respect for that rivalry as well.”

Before the presser began, Wells tweeted out a “Wreck ‘em” on his Twitter account, signaling an addition of a recruit to the program. That commit being Loic Fouonji, who was a big win for Texas Tech as the Midland receiver chose to stay in west Texas over the likes of Texas A&M and Texas, to name a few.

Wells said recruiting has been really good. Wells preaches to “recruit and develop.” The staff has had 50 weeks of recruiting under their belts, and Wells said it inspires him to continue to get the program turned around.

“It is all about recruiting,” Wells said, “and it's about developing your current locker room and our players. That's why this kind of fires me up, is to see our players really start making the turn, and I think helping turn this locker room around.”

When recruiting, Wells talked about what he sees in potentially bringing an athlete to Texas Tech. He simply said its about the “what you do than the how you do it.”

“And the how you do it is more important than the what you do. And the what you do, my example would be X's and O's, O, D, special teams, whatever. It's the how you do it. It's the discipline, the accountability of being a football junkie, of being accountable to your teammates, player-led leadership; all those things that I believe win games and they win games consistently. We're starting to do more of them. And when you do that, the how, and you focus on the how, that's how cultures change.”

At the beginning of the year when Wells and his staff took the open jobs, two things he said he promised: 1) 100 percent preparation for every game as well as playing with “a passion and 2) pride that Red Raider fans would be very, very proud of every time they saw their guys.”

Wells said the investment and buy-in continues to improve from the team. Wells said since the Baylor game, when everyone had emotional disappointment in last-minute type games, he is proud of the way the players come in the following week ready to come in and do work that Monday practice.

“I got a lot of respect for that,” Wells said. “That's what tells me this thing's starting to turn.”

It might be because a lot of games have gone down to the wire, but again, Wells sees the investment. Wells said the players hurt and get banged up late in the year, there’s no chance anymore for a run at a bowl game due to getting beat late against TCU and falling to Kansas State in almost the same late-game fashion, but Wells said every week the guys continue to pick themselves up, and evidently, “That's what gives me more than hope that this thing -- that's evidence to me that this thing's turning.”