Red Raiders seeking fourth coach in past decade

LUBBOCK — With Matt Wells' dismissal Monday midway through his third season at Texas Tech, the Red Raiders are back in the market for their fourth football coach in the past decade.

Since Tech fired Mike Leach in December 2009, Tommy Tuberville, Kliff Kingsbury and Wells have been unable to restore the program's winning ways.

Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt has enlisted four men to assist in the upcoming search: deputy AD Tony Hernandez, Tech Regents and donors Dusty Womble and Cody Campbell and former Tech and NFL running back Sammy Morris, who has been part of Wells' football support staff this season.

An A-J Media source on Monday listed four potential targets as "probably the most realistic at this point."

More names will be mentioned in the coming days, but here is a breakdown of the four:

Sonny Dykes

Current position: SMU head coach

Age: 51

This season: His team is 7-0 and ranked No. 19 in The Associated Press Top 25.

Why Dykes: He knows Texas Tech as well as anyone and has a staff with the Texas recruiting ties that Hocutt covets. The son of former Tech coach Spike Dykes grew up in Lubbock, graduated from Tech and was a charter member of Mike Leach's staff from 2000 through 2006. He's been a Football Bowl Subdivision head coach for 11 seasons at three schools and is enjoying his most success right now with the Mustangs going 24-6 since the beginning of the 2019 season.

Why not: Dykes' 19-30 record at California - his only power-five head-coaching job - might give some pause, though a guy from conservative West Texas seemed an odd fit for Berkeley to begin with. Others might view hiring a Texas Tech guy - like Kliff Kingsbury in football and Mark Adams in basketball - as needlessly narrowing the scope when better candidates might be found elsewhere.

Jeff Traylor

Current position: UT-San Antonio head coach

Age: 53

This season: His team is 8-0 and ranked No. 23 in The Associated Press Top 25.

Why Traylor: He's viewed as a hot up-and-comer, leading UTSA to its first national ranking in his second year in charge of the Roadrunners. If Tech doesn't hire him, there's a good chance someone else will. As a head coach, he's won big. From 2000-14 in his East Texas hometown of Gilmer, Traylor went 175-26 with three UIL state championships and two state runner-up finishes. He seems to be well-liked as a recruiter among Texas high-school coaches, and Hocutt stressed Monday that's vital for the next hire.

Why not: Traylor's 15-5 in his second season at UTSA, but that's the extent of his college head-coaching resume. In that regard, he's a more risky hire than Dykes. Though others' failures can't be pinned on him, he also was an assistant on the ill-fated staffs of Charlie Strong at Texas and Chad Morris at Arkansas.

Art Briles

Current position: Out of coaching

Age: 65

Why Briles: The man wins. He won more than 160 games as a Texas high-school coach and went 99-65 as head coach at Houston from 2003-07 and Baylor from 2008-15. He brought the Cougars and the Bears out of the doldrums, leading Houston to a 10-4 season in 2006 and leading Baylor to double-digit victory totals four times in five years from 2011-15. His style of offense is entertaining, too.

Why not: Briles' Baylor tenure ended amid a campus-wide sexual-assault scandal in which numerous football players were implicated. Any school's or team's attempts to hire him is sure to bring swift and strong condemnation. When the Hamilton Tiger-Cats hired Briles as an assistant in 2017, the immediate blowback prompted the CFL team to rescind the offer hours later. Influential Tech donors have pushed for Briles for several years and continue to do so, an A-J Media source said this week, but the Tech administration has so far refused to consider him.

Kendal Briles

Current position: Arkansas offensive coordinator

Age: 38

This season: The Razorbacks are 5-3 and one of college football's surprise teams with wins over then-No. 15 Texas and then-No. 7 Texas A&M and a one-point loss to Mississippi, which has climbed to No. 10.

Why Kendal Briles: He's familiar with West Texas, having played quarterback at Frenship while his father was an assistant at Texas Tech from 2000-03. He played college football at Texas and Houston and has been an offensive coordinator at Baylor, Florida Atlantic, Houston and Florida State before he went to Arkansas last year. His offenses have put up some impressive numbers at each of those stops and he's been a play-caller since 2014.

Why not: He's yet to be a head coach. With Tech having not posted a winning record in Big 12 play since 2009 and its fan base increasingly impatient for a turnaround, now might not be the time for a first-year head coach.