This is going to make a few people mad or at least roll their eyes, but Stewart Mandel, the national college football writer for The Athletic, still has some good feelings about Wells, who he tweeted was the first home run hire of the 2018 off-season.
But this was part of his college football mailbag today:
Of the second-year Big 12 coaches — West Virginia’s Neal Brown, Kansas State’s Chris Klieman, Texas Tech’s Matt Wells and Kansas’ Les Miles — who is most likely to make the jump to Big 12 championship game?
Terry B., Tulsa, Okla.
I was really impressed with the job Klieman did in his first season at K-State. Transitioning from a coach whose name is on the stadium to a complete outsider could have been very jarring inside the football building, but instead it proved galvanizing. Guys who had struggled to make an impact previously made big jumps, as the Wildcats improved from five wins to eight, knocked off Oklahoma and Iowa State and took a Top 25 Navy team to the wire in the Liberty Bowl. With QB Skylar Thompson returning, K-State would seem like the obvious choice here; however, having to replace the entire starting offensive line is not usually a precursor to conference championship runs.
The other one on this list that may be in position to take a big jump is Texas Tech. Wells’ debut 4-8 season was unquestionably disappointing, but the Red Raiders beat a decent Oklahoma State team early on, took 11-win Baylor to overtime and lost three other games by a field goal or less. They also lost QB Alan Bowman three games into the season. His replacement, Jett Duffey, has already transferred to Central Michigan, signaling that this will be Bowman’s team again next season. And by then he’ll have had nearly two years in Wells and OC David Yost’s system.
As of now, I’d give a slight nod to Wells for a potential breakout second season. Realistically, Brown and Miles’ rebuilding programs are a year or more away from entering the conversation.
But this was part of his college football mailbag today:
Of the second-year Big 12 coaches — West Virginia’s Neal Brown, Kansas State’s Chris Klieman, Texas Tech’s Matt Wells and Kansas’ Les Miles — who is most likely to make the jump to Big 12 championship game?
Terry B., Tulsa, Okla.
I was really impressed with the job Klieman did in his first season at K-State. Transitioning from a coach whose name is on the stadium to a complete outsider could have been very jarring inside the football building, but instead it proved galvanizing. Guys who had struggled to make an impact previously made big jumps, as the Wildcats improved from five wins to eight, knocked off Oklahoma and Iowa State and took a Top 25 Navy team to the wire in the Liberty Bowl. With QB Skylar Thompson returning, K-State would seem like the obvious choice here; however, having to replace the entire starting offensive line is not usually a precursor to conference championship runs.
The other one on this list that may be in position to take a big jump is Texas Tech. Wells’ debut 4-8 season was unquestionably disappointing, but the Red Raiders beat a decent Oklahoma State team early on, took 11-win Baylor to overtime and lost three other games by a field goal or less. They also lost QB Alan Bowman three games into the season. His replacement, Jett Duffey, has already transferred to Central Michigan, signaling that this will be Bowman’s team again next season. And by then he’ll have had nearly two years in Wells and OC David Yost’s system.
As of now, I’d give a slight nod to Wells for a potential breakout second season. Realistically, Brown and Miles’ rebuilding programs are a year or more away from entering the conversation.
