RELATED: Texas Tech hires Matt Wells | Pros and cons
Matt Wells has been hired as the Red Raiders' next head football coach. Here are five questions facing Wells as he takes over on the South Plains.
1. What kind of commitment is Texas Tech making to Wells?
Wells made $900,000 at Utah State, while the Red Raiders were set to pay Kliff Kingsbury $3.9 million in 2019. It is fair to assume that Wells will receive a significant pay increase while not approaching what Kingsbury was scheduled to earn.
2. What kind of commitment is Texas Tech making to Wells' program?
At one point during Kingsbury’s tenure, the Red Raiders had a lower assistant coach salary pool than Army. Furthermore, the program, as explained by RRS.com’s Ben Golan earlier this week, is woefully behind its Big 12 peers in off-field support and recruiting staff. Will Texas Tech invest in Wells’ program in ways that it did not under Kingsbury?
3. How will Wells compensate for his lack of Texas ties?
Matt Rhule arrived at Baylor facing similar questions after spending his entire coaching career on the East Coast. He quickly infused his staff with several Texas high school football coaches and those questions have since been largely silenced. Will Wells follow the same playbook, or will he look to add more traditional assistant coaches with ties to the state and region?
4. Why Wells over Neal Brown, Seth Littrell or Dana Holgorsen?
This is the underlying question that has dominated the conversation ever since RedRaiderSports.com first passed along on Wednesday morning that Wells was the leading candidate. While Wells is certainly a good football coach and is far from an obviously terrible hire (e.g. Charlie Weis), there’s nothing about his resume that jumps out as making him a much better fit for Texas Tech than Brown, Littrell or Holgorsen.
5. Will Wells make Texas Tech football "elite"?
Kirby Hocutt used the "elite" word Sunday when describing his vision for Red Raider football, and doubled-down on that word again Wednesday on his radio show. Fairly or unfairly, Hocutt’s use of “elite” and fans' initial skepticism of the hire mean that Wells’ performance from Day 1 onward will be compared against that word.
