Matt Wells
Followed Kliff Kingsbury. Matt Wells held Texas Tech at National Program II for 3 seasons.
Career arc
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached National Program in his 7th career season — faster than 9% of the 675 FBS coaches who have ever reached National Program (rank #597 of 675 by seasons-to-arrival).
Style position and drift
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
4–7 against his rivals. Just 1–3 against Bryan Harsin.
His own effect, isolated
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Coaching career
12th-best Texas Tech tenure of 15 by the numbers.
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on offense and underperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
Followed Kliff Kingsbury (2013–2018) · succeeded by Joey McGuire (2022–2026).
| Season | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||
| Record | 4–8 | 4–6 | 5–3 | |
| Postseason | — | — | W bowl | |
| Recruiting rank | #61 | #49 | #64 | |
| Style — pass rate | ||||
| Pass rate | 56.8 | 54.0 | 47.1 | |
| Coordinators | ||||
| OC | David Yost | David Yost | Sonny Cumbie | |
| DC | Keith Patterson | Derek Jones / Keith Patterson | Derek Jones / Keith Patterson | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||
| Offense | 54 | 40 | 66 | |
| Defense | 17 | 41 | 15 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | ||||
| 1st-down pass% | 58.9 | 54.0 | 40.4 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 39.6 | 35.3 | 37.1 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 38.3 | 50.0 | 43.8 | |
A typical amount of portal roster-building.
Brings in bigger-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
7 NFL Draft picks: Dakota Allen (2019), Jordyn Brooks (2020), Broderick Washington Jr (2020), Zech McPhearson (2021), Jack Anderson (2021), Erik Ezukanma (2022), Dawson Deaton (2022)
7th-best Utah State tenure of 22 by the numbers.
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on offense and outperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
| Season | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||||
| Record | 9–5 | 10–4 | 6–7 | 3–9 | 6–7 | 10–2 | |
| Postseason | — | W bowl | L bowl | — | CFP loss | W bowl | |
| Recruiting rank | — | #110 | #96 | #92 | #104 | #109 | |
| Style — pass rate | |||||||
| Pass rate | — | 43.2 | 45.6 | 48.2 | 47.3 | 49.5 | |
| Coordinators | |||||||
| OC | — | Kevin McGiven | Josh Heupel | Jovon Bouknight / Luke Wells | David Yost | David Yost | |
| DC | — | Todd Orlando | Kevin Clune | Frank Maile / Kendrick Shaver | Frank Maile / Kendrick Shaver | Frank Maile / Keith Patterson | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||||
| Offense | — | 59 | 45 | 39 | 21 | 94 | |
| Defense | — | 89 | 68 | 61 | 87 | 93 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | |||||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | 38.5 | 46.4 | 38.7 | 43.6 | 50.6 | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | 29.4 | 38.9 | 32.9 | 50.0 | 33.6 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | 9.8 | 29.2 | 22.7 | 27.7 | 18.2 | |
8 NFL Draft picks: Will Davis (2013), Kerwynn Williams (2013), Maurice Alexander (2014), Nevin Lawson (2014), Nick Vigil (2016), Kyler Fackrell (2016), Devante Mays (2017), Darwin Thompson (2019)