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List of Texas Tech Red Raiders head football coaches

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The first coach of the Red Raiders, known then as the Matadors, was Ewing Y. Freeland.

The Texas Tech Red Raiders football program is a college football team that represents Texas Tech University in the Big 12 Conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The program has had 17 head coaches, and three interim head coaches, since it began play during the 1925 season.

Texas Tech (then known as Texas Technological College) was known as the "Matadors" from 1925 to 1936, a name suggested by the wife of Ewing Y. Freeland, the first football coach, to reflect the influence of the Spanish Renaissance architecture on campus.[1] In 1932, Texas Tech joined the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The school's short-lived Matadors moniker was replaced officially in 1937 with "Red Raiders", the nickname the team has had ever since.[1] The same year, Pete Cawthon, Texas Tech's third head coach, led the team to their first conference championship and bowl game berth, a 7–6 loss to the West Virginia Mountaineers in the Sun Bowl. Texas Tech suffered four more bowl losses, under two head coaches, before their first postseason win in the 1952 Sun Bowl, under first-year head coach DeWitt Weaver.[2] Before withdrawing from the Border Conference in 1956, the Red Raiders won nine conference championships, the most held by a Border Conference member. Weaver and his predecessor Dell Morgan each won four conference championships, a record for a Texas Tech head coach.

In 1960, Texas Tech was admitted to the Southwest Conference. The Red Raiders won two conference championships in 1976 and 1994, under head coaches Steve Sloan and Spike Dykes respectively. Texas Tech became a charter member in the South Division of the Big 12 Conference in 1996 when the Southwest Conference disbanded. During his ninth season as head coach, Mike Leach led Texas Tech to the program's first division championship in 2008. After Leach was fired at the end of the 2009 season, Ruffin McNeill was named interim head coach for the Alamo Bowl. Tommy Tuberville coached the Red Raiders from 2010 to 2012, resigning after the conclusion of the regular season. Kliff Kingsbury, a former standout quarterback at Texas Tech, coached the Red Raider from 2013 to 2018.[3] Matt Wells, coached the Red Raiders from 2019 to 2021, being fired before the conclusion of the season.[4] Sonny Cumbie will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of 2021.[5] Texas Tech hired Joey McGuire on November 8, 2021, for the 2022 season. McGuire was previously the associate head coach and outside linebackers coach at Baylor University.

Key

[edit]
Key to symbols in coaches list
General Overall Conference Postseason[A 1]
No. Order of coaches[A 2] GC Games coached CW Conference wins PW Postseason wins
DC Division championships OW Overall wins CL Conference losses PL Postseason losses
CC Conference championships OL Overall losses CT Conference ties PT Postseason ties
NC National championships OT Overall ties[A 3] C% Conference winning percentage
† Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame O% Overall winning percentage[A 4]

Coaches

[edit]
List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards[A 5]
No. Name Season(s) GC OW OL OT O% CW CL CT C% PW PL PT CCs DCs[A 6] Notable awards
1 Ewing Y. Freeland 1925–1928 37 21 10 6 .649 — — — — — — — — — —
2 Grady Higginbotham 1929 10 1 7 2 .200 — — — — — — — — — —
3 Pete Cawthon 1930–1940 114 76 32 6 .693 10 1 1 .875 0 2 0 1 — —
4 Dell Morgan 1941–1950 107 55 49 3 .528 23 3 1 .870 0 3 0 4 — Border Conference Coach of the Year (1949)[9]
5 DeWitt Weaver 1951–1960 105 49 51 5 .490 20 6 3 .741 2 1 0 4 — Border Conference Coach of the Year (1951, 1953)[10]
6 J. T. King 1961–1969 92 44 45 3 .495 27 35 1 .437 0 2 0 0 — SWC Coach of the Year (1965)[11]
7 Jim Carlen 1970–1974 59 37 20 2 .644 20 15 0 .571 1 2 1 0 — SWC Coach of the Year (1970, 1973)[12]
8 Steve Sloan 1975–1977 35 23 12 0 .657 15 8 0 .652 0 2 0 1 — SWC Coach of the Year (1976)[13]
9 Rex Dockery 1977–1980 33 15 16 2 .485 10 13 1 .438 0 0 0 0 — SWC Coach of the Year (1978)[14]
10 Jerry Moore†[15] 1981–1985 55 16 37 2 .309 9 29 2 .250 0 0 0 0 — —
11 David McWilliams 1986 11 7 4 0 .636 5 3 0 .625 0 0 0 0 — SWC Coach of the Year (1986)[16]
12 Spike Dykes 1986–1999 150 82 67 1 .550 57 40 1 .587 2 5 0 1 0 SWC Coach of the Year (1989, 1993, 1994)[17]
Big 12 Coach of the Year (1996)[18]
13 Mike Leach 2000–2009 127 84 43 — .661 47 33 — .588 5 4 — 0 1 Big 12 Coach of the Year (2008)
George Munger Award (2008)
Woody Hayes Award (2008)
Int Ruffin McNeill 2009 1 1 0 — 1.000 — — — — 1 0 — — — —
14 Tommy Tuberville 2010–2012 37 20 17 — .541 9 17 — .294 1 0 — 0 0 —
Int Chris Thomsen 2012 1 1 0 — 1.000 — — — — 1 0 — — — —
15 Kliff Kingsbury 2013–2018 75 35 40 — .466 19 35 — .351 1 2 — 0 — —
16 Matt Wells 2019–2021 22 13 17 — .433 7 16 — .304 0 0 — 0 — —
Int

Sonny Cumbie

2021 5 2 3 — .400 1 3 — .250 1 0 — — — —
17

Joey McGuire

2022–present 26 15 11 — .577 10 8 — .556 2 0 — — — —

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Although the first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902, it has been continuously played since the 1916 game, and is recognized as the oldest bowl game by the NCAA. "—" indicates any season prior to 1916 when postseason games were not played.[6]
  2. ^ A running total of the number of head coaches, with coaches who served separate tenures being counted only once. Interim head coaches are represented with "Int" and are not counted in the running total. "—" indicates the team played but either without a coach or no coach is on record. "X" indicates an interim year without play.
  3. ^ Overtime rules in college football were introduced in 1996, making ties impossible in the period since.[7]
  4. ^ When computing the win–loss percentage, a tie counts as half a win and half a loss.[8]
  5. ^ Statistics correct as of the end of the 2016 college football season.
  6. ^ Texas Tech participated as a member of the South Division in the Big 12 Conference from 1996 through 2010.

References

[edit]

General

  • Texas Tech University Athletics Communications (Summer 2015). "2015 Texas Tech Football Media Supplement". 2015 Texas Tech Football (Sixth ed.). Texas Tech University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
  • Staff (2014). "Texas Tech Coaching Records". Texas Tech History. College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved January 3, 2017.

Specific

  1. ^ a b Clark, Kyle; Siegrist, Nikki (March 13, 2003). "Making Matadors: Spanish style architecture inspires Tech's first mascot". The Daily Toreador. Archived from the original on September 26, 2008. Retrieved February 4, 2010.
  2. ^ "Texas Tech Bowl History". College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on February 16, 2010. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
  3. ^ "Kliff Kingsbury coming home to Texas Tech to be Red Raiders head coach". Yahoo! Sports. December 12, 2012. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
  4. ^ "Texas Tech hires Utah State's Matt Wells to replace Kliff Kingsbury as its coach".
  5. ^ "Texas Tech fires head coach Matt Wells, names Sonny Cumbie as interim". {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  6. ^ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2011). Bowl/All-Star Game Records (PDF). Indianapolis, Indiana: NCAA. pp. 5–10. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 5, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
  7. ^ Whiteside, Kelly (August 25, 2006). "Overtime system still excites coaches". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on September 6, 2010. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  8. ^ Finder, Chuck (September 6, 1987). "Big plays help Paterno to 200th". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
  9. ^ Rushing, Jane Gilmore; Kline A. Nall (1975). Evolution of a University: Texas Tech's first fifty years. Austin, Texas: Madrona Press. p. 128. ISBN 0-89052-017-8.
  10. ^ Andrews, Ruth Horn (1956). The First Thirty Years: a History of Texas Technological College. Lubbock, Texas: The Texas Tech Press. p. 307.
  11. ^ "Texas Tech 2010–11 Athletics Record Book". Texas Tech University. p. 10. Retrieved March 6, 2011.
  12. ^ Zuvanich, Adam (July 9, 2008). "Hall to enter Hall: Former QB among seven Tech honorees". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Archived from the original on October 3, 2012. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
  13. ^ Traughbe, Bill (September 20, 2006). "Steve Sloan Talks About His Career" (PDF). Vanderbilt University. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 17, 2012. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
  14. ^ Gulick, Joe (September 17, 2008). "Dirk West: Coach hit it big". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Archived from the original on October 3, 2012. Retrieved December 19, 2010.
  15. ^ Staff (2016). "Member Biography: Jerry Moore". National Football Foundation. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
  16. ^ Freeman, Denne H. (October 31, 1987). "'Horns Concern Tech Players Not Departure of McWilliams". The Victoria Advocate. Associated Press. p. 3B. Retrieved December 19, 2010.[permanent dead link‍]
  17. ^ "Dallas - Texas Tech's bid for its first Cotton Bowl Victory". San Antonio Express-News. Hearst Corporation. Associated Press. December 4, 1994. Texas Tech's bid for its first Cotton Bowl victory on Jan. 2 will be led by none other than The Associated Press Southwest Conference Coach of the Year. Spike Dykes, 56, received the award for the second consecutive year.
  18. ^ "Spike Dykes Endowment Kickoff Luncheon". Texas Tech University. Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved February 3, 2009.

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