Utah State’s Matt Wells Connected To Texas Tech Job, Per Report
It is a curse and a blessing to be great at a Group of Five school
Contact/Follow @JeremyMauss & @MWCwire
Matt Wells to Texas Tech?
Coaching search season is in full force and there is a Mountain West head coach being linked to a Power Five job. That would be Utah State’s Matt Wells who is reportedly to be “the leader right now” to succeed Kliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech, per Don Williams of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
The Red Raiders recently let go of Kingsbury after six years where he had an overall record of 35-40 and had just two winning seasons in that time.
As for Wells, he lead the Aggies to its highest ranking every and peaking at No. 14 in the AP poll, named Mountain West coach of the year and went 10-2 in the regular season.
There is no real obvious connection between Wells and Lubbock outside of maybe stretching to thinking is time at Tulsa and New Mexico as an assistant coach from 2002-08. Since 2010 he has been in Logan as an assistant coach before becoming the head coach starting 2013.
It all depends on what Texas Tech wants to do because that school has ran the air-raid offense ever since Mike Leach was on the sidelines throwing the ball around. Utah State started to do that very successful in the second year of its offense, so that makes sense.
What also makes sense is that Wells has been part of some really good defensive teams while at Utah State. The Big 12 and Texas Tech do not usually have good defenses so maybe that is the Red Raiders thinking by bringing in a coach who can coach some defense.
Money also plays a factor as does taking on a bigger challenge. Wells currently makes $900,000 whereas $3,703,975 is what the Red Raiders paid Kingsbury. Even if Texas Tech pays “only” $2 million it would amount for a huge step up in pay for Wells and money is a big persuader. Also, Well’s buyout is only $800,000 and that is a drop in the bucket for what Texas Tech brings in for football.
Wells’ alma mater is Utah State so maybe the heartstrings will be tugged at and maybe a pay increase to get him over the $1 million mark in base pay. For those interested, here is Wells’ contract with Utah State.
