Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.
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THE STORYLINE
Texas Tech is 30-33 overall under coach Kliff Kingsbury and just 16-29 in the Big 12, and that’s why a local legend finds himself on the hot seat entering this season.
The offense has never been an issue for the Red Raiders (even when Kingsbury was playing quarterback in Lubbock) but the defense cannot seem to be figured out. Even in the wide-open Big 12 Conference where defense seems non-existent at times, Texas Tech has been particularly poor.
That could be Kingsbury’s downfall if that’s not figured out pronto. With a conference that is getting better - Oklahoma is a perennial College Football Playoff contender, Texas should improve under Tom Herman and then Oklahoma State, TCU and others are key players - Texas Tech's place in the conference power structure is somewhere in the middle.
Can Kingsbury do enough this season to keep his job, or will the Texas Tech brass have to figure out a delicate way to usher out a native son and start the rebuilding process?
FIRST TAKE: AARON DICKENS, REDRAIDERSPORTS.COM
“The last two Novembers in Lubbock have been dominated by discussions, rumors and at least one false report about Kliff Kingsbury's job status. Patience is running thin in West Texas, and it's not hard to see why. Kingsbury is 30-33 overall in five seasons, 16-29 in Big 12 play and has led Texas Tech to its first back-to-back losing seasons since the 1980s. The results have not been near good enough, and everyone involved - Kingsbury, the university leadership and, most of all, the fans - agree on that point.
“Many Power Five coaches would not get a sixth season with that kind of resume, but there are a number of mitigating factors at play. Kingsbury is a well-known and beloved figure that played an instrumental role in kick-starting the program's Mike Leach era, the university leadership appears to be intensely convinced that sticking with him will pay dividends in the future and, perhaps most importantly, buying out his contract in 2016 or 2017 would have been pretty expensive.
“I'm not sure at this point what Kingsbury has to do to save his job. If Texas Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt has a red line, he's not sharing it with many people. The seemingly obvious answer would be for Kingsbury to improve on last season's 6-7 record but, because of the factors mentioned earlier, it frankly wouldn't surprise me at all if another six-win season was good enough to keep him in Lubbock for another year.”
SECOND TAKE: MIKE FARRELL, RIVALS.COM
“Can they do better? That’s the big question. He’s a Texas Tech guy, he’s a very good offensive coach. It really depends on how the defense continues to develop and whether they can get better and more balanced, then he will be fine.
“I don’t think there are a lot of guys on the hot seat next year. It’s not really a big year for hot seat.”
