Report: Texas Tech fires Matt Wells during third season

Texas Tech has fired head football coach Matt Wells in his third season at the helm of the Red Raiders, according to a report from Pete Thamel.

Wells was hired in 2019 to take over for Kliff Kingsbury, who Texas Tech dismissed after his sixth season. Wells had a 13-17 overall record at Texas Tech, and the Red Raiders were off to a 5-3 start in the 2021 season. The news of his firing surfaced days after Texas Tech’s third loss to the season to Kansas State, a game in which the Red Raiders led 24-10 at halftime but got shut out in the second half, losing 25-24.

Sonny Cumbie, Texas Tech’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, will take over as the interim head coach, according to a report from Max Olson.

Wells signed a six-year deal at Texas Tech that runs through the 2024 season and is worth $18.8 million. According to local reports, Texas Tech will owe Wells $7 million in buyout fees.

Wells’ firing marks the fourth Power Five head coaching change of the 2021 season. Texas Tech joined Washington State, LSU and USC in relieving its head coach.

Wells was unable to turn around a program that 5-7 in its last season with Kingsbury. Texas Tech went 4-8 in 2019, his first season in Lubbock, then followed it up with another meager 4-6 campaign in 2020, before stringing together a 5-3 record in 2021. Through two and a half seasons, Wells had a 7-16 overall mark in Big 12 play.

Prior to his arrival in Lubbock, Wells spent six seasons at Utah State, his alma mater. He saw plenty of success with the Aggies, leading them to a 44-34 overall record, and won two of his four bowl game appearances. He was named the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year in 2013, his first season at Utah State, and again in 2018, his last year at Utah State.

Candidates to replace Matt Wells at Texas Tech

Though the search for a new Texas Tech head coach may not have started just yet, Yahoo! Sports’ Pete Thamel has named two potential candidates to replace Wells: SMU head coach Sonny Dykes and UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor.

SMU currently has a 7-0 overall record, good for a No. 19 ranking in the AP top 25, and Dykes has amassed a 29-13 overall record in his four seasons at the helm, just over 350 miles east of Lubbock. Prior to his arrival at SMU, Dykes was the head coach at Louisiana Tech and Cal.

Traylor, like Dykes, has coached another Texas college — UTSA — to a perfect 8-0 record and a No. 24 ranking in the AP poll. Traylor has a long history of coaching Texas football, serving many years as a high school coach before taking assistant coaching jobs at Texas, SMU and Arkansas.