Texas Tech fires head football coach

The Texas Tech Red Raiders football will be finishing up their season without head coach Matt Wells after a two-plus season in charge of the team.

The loss to Kansas State was the final straw when the Red Raiders blew a 14-point second-half lead and lost 24-25.

Just hours after reports came out that Texas Tech planned to fire head football coach Matt Wells, it was announced that Tech’s offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie was named as the interim head coach.

Following their 52-21 loss to the Oklahoma Sooners, the Red Raiders are 5-4 this season, with Tech 0-2 at home in the Big 12 games and will likely be the underdog against Iowa State (home game), Oklahoma State and Baylor.

Under Wells, Texas Tech is 1-6 against ranked Big 12 opponents since 2019. Only West Virginia and Kansas have worse records during that period. The Red Raiders are 13-18 since Wells was hired to replace Kliff Kingsbury after the 2018 season and the team has not qualified for a bowl game during that time. Wells' .433 winning percentage was the second worst in school history to Jerry Moore (.309 from 1981 to '85) among coaches who spent more than one season in Lubbock.

Wells served as the 16th head football coach in Texas Tech history,

Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt said there is no ideal time to make a coaching change or decision to fire a coach.

"Just given where we were, when we looked at the full body of work in the program collectively, we felt it was inevitable," said Hocutt.

Since Leach was fired in 2009, Texas Tech has been through numerous head football coaches, including Ruffin McNeil, Tommy Tuberville, Chris Thomsen, Kingsbury, Wells and now Cumbie.

Cumbie has a history with the Red Raiders after playing quarterback at Texas Tech for Mike Leach between 2000 and 2004. Cumbie served as an assistant at Texas Tech between 2009 and 2013, then left for TCU. He returned this season as offensive coordinator

Ṡo what is up next for the coaching staff?

Hocutt said a search committee will include Tech booster and regent Dusty Womble, who just made a $20 million donation to the athletic department earlier this month; former player and oil and gas executive Cody Campbell; former Red Raider running back Sammy Morris, who currently serves as the team's assistant director of player support development; and deputy athletic director Tony Hernandez.

He said there isn’t a timeline for a hire, but he expects the Red Raiders to get back to being in bowl games every season and be contenders into November.

"We've been No. 2 in the country before," said Hocutt, referring to the 2008 season under Leach, when Tech was in the top 10 for 11 weeks. "We can do it again here at Texas Tech. We've just got to take that next step. We've got to find that individual that can bring that missing piece of what's not there to allow us to take that step."

While there is no absolute indication of who Hocutt and his committee have in mind to replace Wells, there is speculation that potential coaching candidates point to SMU's Sonny Dykes and UTSA's Jeff Traylor.

Dykes has strong ties to Lubbock and Texas Tec being the sone of former Texas Tech head coach Spike Dykes, who was the second all-time winningest football coach in Texas Tech. His coaching record includes Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, 2010 through 2012 with an overall record of 22-15 and Western Athletic Conference, 14-7; , California Golden Bears, 2013-2016, 19-30 overall, Pac-12 Conference, 10-26; and SMU Mustangs, 29-15 overall and American Athletic Conference, 17-10.

In the end, Dykes has carved a place out for himself at a job he likes at SMU and can continue building in Dallas – or can restore his father’s football program and alma mater at Texas Tech.

Traylor may be out of mix following an announcement by UTSA the Roadrunners have extended his contract through 2031 and will be paying the coach an average of $2.8 million per season over the next 10 years.