Wells emphasizes logo, reloading and more in opening address

RELATED: Bowman ready to lead the Red Raiders under Wells | RRS TV: Reacting to a big Saturday

Matt Wells was formally introduced as the next head coach of the Red Raiders on Saturday morning inside the United Supermarkets Arena. The likes of Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope, Chancellor Ted Mitchell and baseball coach Tim Tadlock were just a few in attendance. The key takeaways are as follows.

- First, snippets from coach Wells’ opening statement.

“Man, I'm excited. What a great day to be a Red Raider. I am very, very honored and extremely humbled to be your next head football coach and have a chance to coach and influence these young men and their teammates in a major, major positive way.

President (Lawrence) Schovanec, AD Kirby Hocutt. These guys are visionaries and leaders who sold me on the vision of the greatness that Texas Tech football has been and will be, all right, in the years to come starting next year, starting right now. This program deserves a team that everybody can go be proud of every single Saturday. That's our goal.”

Wells thanked his family, colleagues and his former team at Utah State. But, his vision is set on “reloading, not rebuilding” the football program in Lubbock.

- Hocutt and Wells met on Sunday. Wells said the first three things that stuck out to him when looking at Texas Tech. One, the high-powered offense. Second, the guys on the team. He added the group of seniors from what he can see, deserves to win. Third, he’s set on recruiting the state of Texas with much success.

- What can fans expect from this team?

“Now, the easy stuff for me. What we are, okay? This is what's fun. The what we are is offense, defense, special teams and the weight room.

What we are on offense, we're fast-paced, spread, tempo, no-huddle. We're going to go as fast as we humanly can, as fast as Coach Yost can get the call out of his mouth is how fast we're going.

We're going to score points. That's the offense's job. We're going to run the football when we want to run it. We'll be a physical running team. You cannot win games in the month of November in this league if you don't run the football in November, okay? I promise you that.

On defense we base out of the odd front. We'll be a multiple pressure package team that are going to be coached and played in a major aggressive manner, all right? We have tweaked, my whole thing, when you hire Matt Wells, you're going to high our team, our program, all right? That's what gets me motivated, juiced every day, is how these two guys work together, how we all work together with the strength and conditioning because it's all works together.”

- Wells commented on the strong atmosphere in Jones AT&T Stadium. He alluded to a game that took place between the Utah State Aggies and Red Raiders where Byron Hanspard ran all over them.

“I remember 1996, this guy right here, we rolled into Lubbock, little old Utah State, and this place was rocking. I'm going to tell you what, the tortillas were flying. It was crazy. Coach Dykes, Zebbie Lethridge, Byron Hanspard, they boat raced us. I mean, it wasn't even close. That was when tempo was different back then. They huddled up, boom, down, boom. That daggum horse needed water.”

- Wells mentioned that they’ll be bringing in coaches quickly and will hit the recruiting trail quickly, but first thing on his agenda is making sure the guys on his team right now are okay and taken care of. He said midweek or so will be the time when things get going in full swing.

- Perhaps one of the key talking points that won over the Red Raider crowd was how much Wells emphasized the double t logo. Here’s the quote from Wells on the logo.

“It's all about the logo. I said that to the players yesterday. I finally got one. I didn't earn those stripes yesterday, I didn't think. Maybe after this I'm okay wearing it. I didn't feel like that yesterday, so...

When I say that, I'll explain it. It's all about the logo. One of the things I'll never forget Kirby said is, he said, Matt, in Lubbock, and in West Texas, there ain't nothing else. All you see is Under Armour and the double T. That's it. There's no other logos floating around here, and that is pretty cool. It takes everybody that can hear me right now. That logo is more important than one person, more important than a new head coach, because I promise you it's not all about me, not about the quarterback, a kicker, the best D line we have, not about a president, a booster, an alumni. It's about every one of us. It's not about a former quarterback, a former coach, okay?”

- Wells’ track record is something of concern for Red Raider fans. Three of his six years at Utah State were nine-plus winning seasons while the other three weren’t as hot. Wells said he can honestly attribute that to himself. He said he wasn’t around the players as much as he should have been.

“I also learned some things about myself as a head coach. To be real frank, I don't mind saying it, I wouldn't spend enough time with the players. I'm a guy that meets with these guys constantly, especially in season. Two-minute meeting, 10-minute meeting, doesn't matter. Half a dozen a day. You add that up over a week and a month, that's the entire team one-on-one. It ain't behind a desk, it's somewhere else in the complex, let's take a walk.

To be real honest with you, I wasn't doing a very good job of that. Apparently I'd done a good job of it at the beginning. Maybe we did a little bit better the last year or so. But it's humbling. It's hard. You have all the resolve in the world that it's never going to happen again on my watch.”