Aaron Dickens and Chris Level caught up with Texas Tech head football coach Matt Wells to talk the NFL Draft and recruiting.
Matt, first of all, thank you for the time. We appreciate it very, very much. I believe the last time we spoke with you was a week or so after they canceled the tournament, and this was kind of fresh. Have you and you staff kind of settled into a routine?
Matt Wells: “Yeah, we really have. We’ve kind done what we’ve asked our players to do and that’s settle into a routine. We’re in pretty consistent offense and defensive units meetings in the mornings, staff meetings, full-team meetings, and we’re kind of dibby in that part of our day. A tremendous amount of our time is really spent with our players, our current players on FaceTime calls or Zoom calls. Physician meetings, team meetings. We’ve spent a lot of time on recruiting: it’s probably 1-B. And then, the second part is game plan. We’re almost through five opponents of game planning. By (tomorrow), we’ll have five opponents done. So, kind of excited about where that is, and we’ve just tried to do a good job. We’ve had our moments but a good job of controlling our response to this whole thing, getting in a routine and said we’re going to come out better in our relationships and some of our game planning and stuff. And recruiting has really taken… I think we’ve caught fire a little bit here the last ten days, and hopefully we keep that momentum up here another week or so.”
When we had you on, we were kind of wondering is that part of it going to go and you’re going to have a lot of time to focus on that, and you’re right. Catching fire is a great way to put it. I mean, you’ve addressed several things on offense, starting to address some things on defense, including (today). Take us through the excitement that you guys have felt internally with some of that good news dropping.
“Well, as everybody always says, Chris, it’s the life blood of a program. I just think recruiting is passion. It’s being very transparent with these players and families, and then you have to have an energy and a work ethic about it. You can’t just make one call, and say, ‘yeah, I got him,’ or, ‘no I didn’t get him.’ It’s a ton of calls to get FaceTime, Zooms, calls, letter-writing, texts and everything. I just know we got brought in to change this program and to get it flipped around, and I believe in changing the culture, and I think you can do it two ways. Number one is inside your current locker room. I certainly think we’ve taken a good stab at that, and I don’t think we’re done with that yet, but the second way you change a culture is recruit to it. I just think we have a high-level energy for recruiting around here and the kind of kids we want to get. I just refused to believe what I heard when I first took the job is you can’t out-recruit to Lubbock. It’s absolutely 100 percent false, and just look around at all the other teams that are doing it, and I think that inspires me and my staff, and we get them to Lubbock and we get them the game-day environment in Jones Stadium or the USA arena. That’s second to none, and they feel that, and that’s how you treat them when they get to Lubbock, and these kids that are jumping in and committing have been to Lubbock multiple times. So, the dead period that has resulted right now from the coronavirus and the shelter-in-place has not affected us at all in recruiting.”
Matt, the last time we chatted with you, there were 10-plus graduate transfers that you all had identified and were coming through Lubbock on visits, and those were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. You did add Josh Burger about a week ago. What can you tell us about him? What do you expect him to do once he gets to campus?
“I think with graduate transfers, you have to have a need. You have to have a need at a position, and the candidates that come in have to… I’m trying to say they have to have what we want, and I think it’s emphasized even more with the graduate transfer. We’ve had a tremendous amount of success over the years that I’ve been the head coach with transfers. We took a bunch last year, and we’re going to take a few this year. You know, (Brandon Bouyer-Randle) got here in January. So, Randle’s going to help us out a lot on defense for the next two years. You got to have a need. We certainly have need on the O-line. We’re still looking at some safeties, maybe even potentially a linebacker and a tight end. So, there’s still some more needs that we have out there.”
Just as a football guy, how excited are you about tonight and tomorrow and just the draft being here and some actual sports to talk about?
“Okay, so I’m fired up for two reasons, not just because it’s the draft. There’s two guys that I’ve have the pleasure really for the last couple of years, that their lives are going to be majorly changed, maybe tonight and maybe tomorrow, in Jordyn Brooks here at Texas Tech and Jordan Love from Utah State. Who knows what can happen. I’m fired up for them. I always get excited for the draft, even for the rest of the guys here at Tech that I think we still may get some other draft picks or for sure some free agents, see the next team, see the next season in their life. I’m very happy for them, for even my Utah State guys we’re going to keep a close eye on. But I’m excited for live TV. Y’all with me on that? It’s live TV, man. I hope they don’t screw it up.”
Us too, and we were talking about it. We’re not exactly sure how it’s going to look like (tonight), you know, technical glitches or didn’t get their pick in on time. We’re not sure how this is going to work.
“Well, there will be something go wrong, it’ll be fun for us to watch it.”
From a technology standpoint, has that worked flawlessly for you all or has there been technical (difficulties) along the way?
“Yeah, every now and then, there will be a little brother upstairs playing Fortnite, and the band won’t be big enough, and it’ll freeze up a little bit on us sometimes, but shoot it’s been pretty good. I mean, it’s been pretty seamless. Our players do a great job with it, and they know how to do it. The recruits, their high school classes are on that or something similar. We’ve had little issues, to be honest. It’s been pretty good.”
Coach, how much have you been asked about Jordyn Brooks over these last several weeks?
“Oh, quite a bit. You know, teams calling just asking questions: how does he learn? What kind of teammate is he? All the things that they can’t see on tape that they’ve been told by their scouts and all that but they need to be confirmed about it. Some of them just have different types of questions. Yeah, tremendous amount of interest in him really over the last month.”
Have you detected a difference, because you’ve obviously been a head coach for a long time, have you detected a difference in the type of questions that are asked or the volume of questions asked considering that they can’t go see Jordyn in person, they can’t work him out in person or go to a Pro Day?
“That’s a great question. Maybe a little bit, but it’s probably hard for me to answer that. I think I got to consider the pandemic, right? Like you mentioned, they can’t get out, so are there more calls coming in… This is the most I’ve ever fielded, but it’s probably that, but it’s also a combination of almost every time I get a call about Jordyn Brooks, they say, ‘can you stay on the line and can we stay on the line and talk about Jordan Love,’ and sometimes the calls just come in for Tech guys, and sometimes they come in just for Utah State guys. Probably, this year, probably one more year, I’ll answer questions about Utah State guys, I would think. Obviously, Jordan Love and the potential to be a first round draft pick quarterback (tonight) has certainly brought in a tremendous amount of calls in, I would probably think.”
Coach, back on Brooks, I would see you weekly during the season, Jordyn started to do what he was doing his senior year. I remember you and coach Patterson would just… it just started to build, like and I think he compares to, you know, one or a couple of your Utah State linebackers that spent plenty of time in the NFL and are still there.
“You know, Chris, that has been a comparison for several teams, and I can’t say which ones they were, but a lot of them do want to compare to Bobby Wagner. The interesting comparison just in my opinion, or my observation or evaluation of Jordyn Brooks in Bobby Wagner, is that I saw them at the same stage in their career. I came in my first year as an assistant at Utah State was Bobby Wagner’s senior year and obviously coming in here for Jordyn Brooks’ senior year. So, I saw one year as a body of work, and so the evaluation is at the same time of their career with the same body of work. So, pretty good comparisons there. I’m also getting asked Nick Vigel. He’s on his fourth year starting the NFL, and there’s some similarities there. So, I’ll tell you what: Jordyn Brooks, I’m so proud of him. He’s come a long way. He bought in to everything that we were asking him to do. Waiting room, coach Shoulz, Keith Patterson coached him hard, guys. He strained him, and Jordyn bought in, and I still think Jordyn has more in him, and I kind of made that known to a lot of scouts and position coaches and the head coaches that did call about Jordyn, and I’m so proud of Jordyn, and that is a classic example of playing the best ball of his career his senior year, and I’m so proud of him. And you know what, whether it’s (tonight or tomorrow night), wherever he goes, he’s helped us family, he’s changed his life, and that’s a really cool thing to see.”
Terence Steele also has a chance, and some see him as a swing tackle. He’s played left tackle and right tackle for you guys. Kind of take me through what he meant for your offensive line.
“Versatility, can play right or left, really smart. Terence is a great kid. He accepted us the minute we got here. For that, I will always be grateful. Great leader, caption. Terence Steele: he’ll have a new team by the end of the weekend, somehow some way.”
In terms of college football, I’m kind of curious. We all kind of wonder how this will impact things, this pandemic. Do you think this will, with potentially a shortened offseason, do you think it’ll be harder for freshman and maybe newcomers to break in and play right away considering they may not have as much kind of lead time before the season to prepare?
“I think that is a legit observation, but I’m going to say I’m just going to think about our guys our Texas Tech. I’m going to say no. I think we signed in this 2020 class, I think we signed a lot of guys that are self-made men. I think they are pretty accountable to themselves right now. I mean, I’ve gotten reports from high school coaches. I mean, Tahj Brooks is changing his body. That guy is a worker. I know (Donovan Smith) and what he’s doing. Loic Fouonji… Clint Hardman out at at Midland Lee talks and raves about what he’s been doing the last month. I think the guys… I only mention a few right there. There’s a handful of others, maybe Nate Floyd, the DBs, we’ll see. I think the guys that can come in here and impact us potentially as freshman will still do it because of who they are. And I also think they play positions that are closer to what their positions were in high school in college. On terms of O-lineman, D-lineman, man, it’s hard to come in and play as a true freshman. You know, Tony Bradford did it for us last year. It may be a little bit harder because they weren’t with coach Scholz for two months in the summer and getting a little bit of a jump in terms of their strength. I also think the O-line and the D-line is a whole different ball game from high school. A bigger step, as I should say, an upper level than it is for a wideout or corner, if that makes sense to y’all.”
Matt, first of all, thank you for the time. We appreciate it very, very much. I believe the last time we spoke with you was a week or so after they canceled the tournament, and this was kind of fresh. Have you and you staff kind of settled into a routine?
Matt Wells: “Yeah, we really have. We’ve kind done what we’ve asked our players to do and that’s settle into a routine. We’re in pretty consistent offense and defensive units meetings in the mornings, staff meetings, full-team meetings, and we’re kind of dibby in that part of our day. A tremendous amount of our time is really spent with our players, our current players on FaceTime calls or Zoom calls. Physician meetings, team meetings. We’ve spent a lot of time on recruiting: it’s probably 1-B. And then, the second part is game plan. We’re almost through five opponents of game planning. By (tomorrow), we’ll have five opponents done. So, kind of excited about where that is, and we’ve just tried to do a good job. We’ve had our moments but a good job of controlling our response to this whole thing, getting in a routine and said we’re going to come out better in our relationships and some of our game planning and stuff. And recruiting has really taken… I think we’ve caught fire a little bit here the last ten days, and hopefully we keep that momentum up here another week or so.”
When we had you on, we were kind of wondering is that part of it going to go and you’re going to have a lot of time to focus on that, and you’re right. Catching fire is a great way to put it. I mean, you’ve addressed several things on offense, starting to address some things on defense, including (today). Take us through the excitement that you guys have felt internally with some of that good news dropping.
“Well, as everybody always says, Chris, it’s the life blood of a program. I just think recruiting is passion. It’s being very transparent with these players and families, and then you have to have an energy and a work ethic about it. You can’t just make one call, and say, ‘yeah, I got him,’ or, ‘no I didn’t get him.’ It’s a ton of calls to get FaceTime, Zooms, calls, letter-writing, texts and everything. I just know we got brought in to change this program and to get it flipped around, and I believe in changing the culture, and I think you can do it two ways. Number one is inside your current locker room. I certainly think we’ve taken a good stab at that, and I don’t think we’re done with that yet, but the second way you change a culture is recruit to it. I just think we have a high-level energy for recruiting around here and the kind of kids we want to get. I just refused to believe what I heard when I first took the job is you can’t out-recruit to Lubbock. It’s absolutely 100 percent false, and just look around at all the other teams that are doing it, and I think that inspires me and my staff, and we get them to Lubbock and we get them the game-day environment in Jones Stadium or the USA arena. That’s second to none, and they feel that, and that’s how you treat them when they get to Lubbock, and these kids that are jumping in and committing have been to Lubbock multiple times. So, the dead period that has resulted right now from the coronavirus and the shelter-in-place has not affected us at all in recruiting.”
Matt, the last time we chatted with you, there were 10-plus graduate transfers that you all had identified and were coming through Lubbock on visits, and those were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. You did add Josh Burger about a week ago. What can you tell us about him? What do you expect him to do once he gets to campus?
“I think with graduate transfers, you have to have a need. You have to have a need at a position, and the candidates that come in have to… I’m trying to say they have to have what we want, and I think it’s emphasized even more with the graduate transfer. We’ve had a tremendous amount of success over the years that I’ve been the head coach with transfers. We took a bunch last year, and we’re going to take a few this year. You know, (Brandon Bouyer-Randle) got here in January. So, Randle’s going to help us out a lot on defense for the next two years. You got to have a need. We certainly have need on the O-line. We’re still looking at some safeties, maybe even potentially a linebacker and a tight end. So, there’s still some more needs that we have out there.”
Just as a football guy, how excited are you about tonight and tomorrow and just the draft being here and some actual sports to talk about?
“Okay, so I’m fired up for two reasons, not just because it’s the draft. There’s two guys that I’ve have the pleasure really for the last couple of years, that their lives are going to be majorly changed, maybe tonight and maybe tomorrow, in Jordyn Brooks here at Texas Tech and Jordan Love from Utah State. Who knows what can happen. I’m fired up for them. I always get excited for the draft, even for the rest of the guys here at Tech that I think we still may get some other draft picks or for sure some free agents, see the next team, see the next season in their life. I’m very happy for them, for even my Utah State guys we’re going to keep a close eye on. But I’m excited for live TV. Y’all with me on that? It’s live TV, man. I hope they don’t screw it up.”
Us too, and we were talking about it. We’re not exactly sure how it’s going to look like (tonight), you know, technical glitches or didn’t get their pick in on time. We’re not sure how this is going to work.
“Well, there will be something go wrong, it’ll be fun for us to watch it.”
From a technology standpoint, has that worked flawlessly for you all or has there been technical (difficulties) along the way?
“Yeah, every now and then, there will be a little brother upstairs playing Fortnite, and the band won’t be big enough, and it’ll freeze up a little bit on us sometimes, but shoot it’s been pretty good. I mean, it’s been pretty seamless. Our players do a great job with it, and they know how to do it. The recruits, their high school classes are on that or something similar. We’ve had little issues, to be honest. It’s been pretty good.”
Coach, how much have you been asked about Jordyn Brooks over these last several weeks?
“Oh, quite a bit. You know, teams calling just asking questions: how does he learn? What kind of teammate is he? All the things that they can’t see on tape that they’ve been told by their scouts and all that but they need to be confirmed about it. Some of them just have different types of questions. Yeah, tremendous amount of interest in him really over the last month.”
Have you detected a difference, because you’ve obviously been a head coach for a long time, have you detected a difference in the type of questions that are asked or the volume of questions asked considering that they can’t go see Jordyn in person, they can’t work him out in person or go to a Pro Day?
“That’s a great question. Maybe a little bit, but it’s probably hard for me to answer that. I think I got to consider the pandemic, right? Like you mentioned, they can’t get out, so are there more calls coming in… This is the most I’ve ever fielded, but it’s probably that, but it’s also a combination of almost every time I get a call about Jordyn Brooks, they say, ‘can you stay on the line and can we stay on the line and talk about Jordan Love,’ and sometimes the calls just come in for Tech guys, and sometimes they come in just for Utah State guys. Probably, this year, probably one more year, I’ll answer questions about Utah State guys, I would think. Obviously, Jordan Love and the potential to be a first round draft pick quarterback (tonight) has certainly brought in a tremendous amount of calls in, I would probably think.”
Coach, back on Brooks, I would see you weekly during the season, Jordyn started to do what he was doing his senior year. I remember you and coach Patterson would just… it just started to build, like and I think he compares to, you know, one or a couple of your Utah State linebackers that spent plenty of time in the NFL and are still there.
“You know, Chris, that has been a comparison for several teams, and I can’t say which ones they were, but a lot of them do want to compare to Bobby Wagner. The interesting comparison just in my opinion, or my observation or evaluation of Jordyn Brooks in Bobby Wagner, is that I saw them at the same stage in their career. I came in my first year as an assistant at Utah State was Bobby Wagner’s senior year and obviously coming in here for Jordyn Brooks’ senior year. So, I saw one year as a body of work, and so the evaluation is at the same time of their career with the same body of work. So, pretty good comparisons there. I’m also getting asked Nick Vigel. He’s on his fourth year starting the NFL, and there’s some similarities there. So, I’ll tell you what: Jordyn Brooks, I’m so proud of him. He’s come a long way. He bought in to everything that we were asking him to do. Waiting room, coach Shoulz, Keith Patterson coached him hard, guys. He strained him, and Jordyn bought in, and I still think Jordyn has more in him, and I kind of made that known to a lot of scouts and position coaches and the head coaches that did call about Jordyn, and I’m so proud of Jordyn, and that is a classic example of playing the best ball of his career his senior year, and I’m so proud of him. And you know what, whether it’s (tonight or tomorrow night), wherever he goes, he’s helped us family, he’s changed his life, and that’s a really cool thing to see.”
Terence Steele also has a chance, and some see him as a swing tackle. He’s played left tackle and right tackle for you guys. Kind of take me through what he meant for your offensive line.
“Versatility, can play right or left, really smart. Terence is a great kid. He accepted us the minute we got here. For that, I will always be grateful. Great leader, caption. Terence Steele: he’ll have a new team by the end of the weekend, somehow some way.”
In terms of college football, I’m kind of curious. We all kind of wonder how this will impact things, this pandemic. Do you think this will, with potentially a shortened offseason, do you think it’ll be harder for freshman and maybe newcomers to break in and play right away considering they may not have as much kind of lead time before the season to prepare?
“I think that is a legit observation, but I’m going to say I’m just going to think about our guys our Texas Tech. I’m going to say no. I think we signed in this 2020 class, I think we signed a lot of guys that are self-made men. I think they are pretty accountable to themselves right now. I mean, I’ve gotten reports from high school coaches. I mean, Tahj Brooks is changing his body. That guy is a worker. I know (Donovan Smith) and what he’s doing. Loic Fouonji… Clint Hardman out at at Midland Lee talks and raves about what he’s been doing the last month. I think the guys… I only mention a few right there. There’s a handful of others, maybe Nate Floyd, the DBs, we’ll see. I think the guys that can come in here and impact us potentially as freshman will still do it because of who they are. And I also think they play positions that are closer to what their positions were in high school in college. On terms of O-lineman, D-lineman, man, it’s hard to come in and play as a true freshman. You know, Tony Bradford did it for us last year. It may be a little bit harder because they weren’t with coach Scholz for two months in the summer and getting a little bit of a jump in terms of their strength. I also think the O-line and the D-line is a whole different ball game from high school. A bigger step, as I should say, an upper level than it is for a wideout or corner, if that makes sense to y’all.”
