Six candidates to replace Matt Wells at Texas Tech

In not-so-surprising news, Matt Wells is out at Texas Tech as head coach. Wells was 13-17 in his third season in Lubbock but blowing a lead to Kansas State this weekend apparently sealed his fate. Here are six replacement candidates that come to mind.

RELATED: Red Raiders dismiss Matt Wells

*****

CLASS OF 2022 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State

CLASS OF 2023 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State

RIVALS TRANSFER TRACKER: Stories/coverage | Message board

RIVALS CAMP SERIES: Info/coverage on 2021 camp series

*****

We start with the coach of the Roadrunners who has his team ranked 8-0 and No. 23 in the country. Jeff Traylor was the Big 12 recruiter of the year back at Texas in 2016, is Texas born and raised and is 15-5 as a head coach so far at UTSA. He also has extensive recruiting contacts and ties in the state and is a young and energetic head coach.

Sonny Dykes has been around the block and has SMU undefeated and in the national top 25 as well. He’s a Texas Tech alum, coached there under Mike Leach and has been successful for the most part at many stops. He has a 70-59 overall record as a head coach and is also Texas born and raised with excellent recruiting ties in the state.

After the first two candidates we head to some longshots. Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt made a run at Brent Venables the last time the job was open and has a great relationship with the Clemson defensive coordinator from their playing days together at Kansas State. Venables has been very, very selective about his head coaching interest but with Clemson struggling this season maybe he’d look at the job a bit harder. He obviously knows how to coach and recruit defensive players.

Jeff Lebby is a Texas native and has had success at Baylor, UCF and now Ole Miss as an offensive minded coach who can develop quarterbacks. He started his career at Oklahoma, hails from Texas and is a bit of a hot name as Ole Miss is lighting it up on offense and Matt Corral has developed so well.

Joey McGuire has done an excellent job as a defensive coach at Baylor and is the associate head coach under Dave Aranda for a very surprisingly successful Bears team this year. His high school career and contacts are legendary so he’s an interesting one to keep an eye on.

Sonny Cumbie takes over in the meantime and has a fun task ahead of him with Oklahoma, Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Baylor left on the schedule. He played at Texas Tech and was successful at TCU so if he pulls a big upset or two you never know.