Within an 11-week period earlier this year, Texas Tech came within a few unlucky breaks of winning a men’s national championship in basketball, won the school’s first men’s national title (track and field) and its baseball team, making its fourth trip to Omaha in the last six years, was one of the last four teams at the College World Series.
In Big 12 all-sports standings for 2018-19 compiled by 247 Sports, Texas Tech finished second behind Texas. The Red Raiders finished No. 3 in the men’s Capital One Cup national all-sports standings.
Matt Wells, named as the school’s new football coach four months before all that winning started, noticed.
“It doesn’t add pressure, it inspires me,” Wells at Big 12 media days. “It shows me you can recruit to Texas Tech and Lubbock. There’s a winning culture in the athletic department.”
In six seasons at Utah State, Wells compiled a 44-34 record with two 10-win seasons. Texas Tech has six seasons with double-digit victories, the last coming in 2008. Since that 11-2 season, the Red Raiders have gone 65-61. The word we’re looking for is “mediocre.”
“I’ve never finished above .500 here and another break-even season will be a disappointment,” senior offensive lineman Travis Bruffy said. “I want to be an eight, nine, 10-win team. That’s what the expectation should be at Texas Tech, every year. Making a bowl game should not be a surprise.”
Wells plans to keep the wide-open passing game on offense but add in a more reliable running game while fielding a defense that can, well, tackle. The school will sell beer and wine this season at Jones AT&T Stadium; the hope is that another porous defense won’t drive them to over-indulge.
Athletic director Kirby Hocutt referenced the saying “a rising tide raises all ships” when asked if the recent success at the national level will boost the football program.
“It has an effect,” he said. “Our football team has seen what basketball, track and baseball have achieved. These are young people who are around their fellow athletes on campus, in the dining hall and they’ve seen them have success on a national level. Do they feed off that success? Absolutely.”
Hocutt played linebacker at Kansas State from 1991-94 when Bill Snyder was turning the Mildcats into Wildcats. He saw that athletes in other sports saw the football team’s success as a reason to believe winning was possible.
Senior linebacker Jordyn Brooks said that Wells’ message during the first team meeting was that he wants to win now.
“Shout out to basketball, baseball and track. That’s big,” Brooks said. “I’m glad they did what they did. It makes us look at each other and ‘C’mon, we got to get together.’ It’s a competitive situation. We see basketball turn it up, we need to turn it up. It sounded crazy for the basketball team to win the national championship. Now I want to make the final four.”
Crazy? Sure. For what it’s worth, four of the Red Raiders’ six losses last season were by fewer than 10 points and they lost back-to-back home games to Oklahoma and Texas by a combined 12 points.
In EA Sports’ Madden 20 game, Texas Tech was one of 10 college programs selected to make a College Football Playoff run in one of the game’s modes. The other nine schools – Clemson, Florida, Florida State, LSU, Miami, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and USC. (Gamers who love college football have lamented the loss of EA Sports’ college football game, which was discontinued in 2013 when legal issues led the NCAA to end its licensing agreement.)
“The standard is being set by these other teams at Tech,” Bruffy said. “If we can bring our team up to that level, we’ll have a special year. We know Lubbock and the school is crying for the football team to follow in the footsteps of the other teams.”
The current status of Texas Tech’s athletic program reminds of the story about a ham and egg breakfast – the chicken is involved but the hog is committed. The commitment to improvement has been evident since Hocutt took over as athletic director in 2011. Most of his coaching hires have been on target and facilities have been improved and built.
The football training facility, originally built in 2003, is scheduled for an upgrade and expansion. A new basketball practice facility is under construction, as is a new athletic dining hall.
Hocutt also has tried to construct a firewall around basketball coach Chris Beard. A trip to the 2018 Elite Eight plus the championship game appearance made him a hot commodity. In late April, Beard agreed to a six-year extension that will pay him $4.575 million annually, making him one of the nation’s highest-paid coaches. In May, the school extended and enhanced Hocutt’s contract. At $1.5 million a year, he is one of the top ADs in terms of compensation.
“There’s a national relevance with our brand right now,” Hocutt said. “In Texas, West Texas, football is very important. We’ve got to get the football program on the same path as the spring programs that had such success. We want to compete for Big 12 championships in November.”
Wells traveled to Minneapolis for the Final Four. He and Beard have bonded. Wells has been particularly enamored with how Beard’s program emphasizes player development.
“I think Chris would love to be a football coach and if he was, he’d focus on the defensive side,” Hocutt said. “It’s been a huge asset for Matt. He had (track coach Wes Kittley) talk to his staff about his 20 years and what he’s learned at Texas Tech.”
While Wells was in Arlington for Big 12 media days, he got a text from baseball coach Tim Tadlock. “He told me he’s got a prospect for me,” Wells said with a grin.
Earlier this summer, Hocutt and all of his head coaches had dinner with school president Dr. Lawrence Schovanec. It was an informal setting that yielded a lot of crosstalk and ideas.
“The coaches feed off one another,” Hocutt said. “We talk about culture within the athletic department and with our coaching staffs. I would put the relationships our coaches in all our sports up against any in the country. Right now, we’ve got a positive culture of success. It’s a special time at Texas Tech.”
