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BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYSJuly 15, 2019Matt WellsArlington, Texas THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Texas Tech head coach, Matt Wells. Coach welcome to the Big 12 and your thoughts for the upcoming season? MATT WELLS: I appreciate that. It's good to see a lot of you guys again and some of you for the first time. But it's an exciting time in college football, exciting time for every one of us that cover it, coach it and all the different responsibilities we all have and you get to come to a day like this and it kind of marks the beginning of it and certainly I'm no different. Very honored, very humbled to be the head coach at Texas Tech and represent us today and this is something I'm excited about. Our players, I respect our players and the changes that they have gone through since December first when we got there. The biggest thing for us is we get into August for us is a brand new program, transitioning into our program, taking it from one level to the next and the work that we have done over the summer. I know we've worked hard but 18 days from now, August 2nd needs to be practice 16 coming out of spring ball and I'm excited about the work that we got coming up in August. The guys that are representing us here today are some of the young men that have completely bought into our program and I respect them and I'm looking forward to you guys being able to get to know them a little bit better. The biggest key for us in year one is instilling our culture, building our foundation, and we always talk about it at Tech and at Lubbock, what we do and how we do it. What we do on offense, what we do on defense, our weight room, strength and conditioning with a major emphasis in nutrition, class, academics, all that stuff, but the key is to the "how" and that's the biggest thing for us in year one is establishing the "how" the physicalness, the toughness, the discipline, mental and physical, and a lot of people say that's culture. That's exactly what it is, but instilling the culture and the foundation. The second thing is getting in the Big 12 season and the fight. That's something I'm excited to see our guys do, I'm excited to coach our guys. But we're not going to deviate from the plan to build a championship program and a championship culture and the ability for me as a head coach to bring our staff to do it the way we have done it. I have a lot of respect for Kirby Hocutt and the opportunity that he has given my staff and our program to implement what we have done over the last several years into Lubbock and Texas Tech and the inspiration that I have now that I can see it over the last seven months that you can do it in Lubbock, Texas. To see the success that we have had in basketball and baseball and track and field and you can win in Lubbock. You can recruit to Lubbock, Texas, and I'm looking forward to that we have good momentum in recruiting and also in the summer the improvements our players have made since the end of spring ball and I'm excited about that and looking forward to the season. Q. Coach, welcome. You touched on it there, but I don't think [Chris] Beard and [Tim] Tadlock did you any favors by winning so fast. You're there, you know what a big spring semester it was there. Does that ramp up your angst of, hey, you gotta get football going? MATT WELLS: I don't think their success puts any more pressure on me or our staff or our program than the pressure that was on it on December 1st, to be dead honest with you. I took the job, based on a lot of other factors and none of those were considered. I respect the question. I think it's really good. I think more than anything it's inspired me to see that it's done and done the right way. Chris Beard coaches those guys like a bunch of football players. They're tough. The emphasis on strength and conditioning and nutrition is similar to what we do. I think it's inspired me. It confirms to me the culture that we have at Texas Tech that Kirby Hocutt has created and the whole athletic department I think is inspirational. Q. What can you tell us about [Alan] Bowman's health? How is he and where is he at? MATT WELLS: Full, completely cleared, healthy, went through all of spring. I'm looking forward to coaching Alan these next three years. He's a football junky. He's passionate about what he does. I respect his grind. He's got a great attitude, first player I met there about the minute we touched down in Lubbock and was wanting to watch cut-ups of Utah State and what we were going to do on offense. Alan had a good freshman year. I think he got in seven games and won a few, won several, but I think Alan's better days are ahead of him. He's talented. There are things he can work on and fundamentals but I think you're going to see a good quarterback. I think he will be better in year two in our system. That's been the history of our system. But I think the motivation for him to be an elite quarterback in the Big 12 is there for him and I respect that from an individual standpoint. Q. Matt, curious, what's your expectation for your graduate transfers, in particular Armand Shyne with the success that he had at Utah and maybe the contributions you might be expecting from people like Zechariah McPhearson and Evan Rambo? MATT WELLS: Good question. Took four grad transfers this year, you mentioned some of them. RJ Turner, a receiver from Louisiana-Monroe, Armand Shyne, running back came from Utah, Zechariah McPhearson a DB from Penn State and Evan Rambo, an outside linebacker from Cal. My expectations first and foremost from them is that they come in and help solidify our culture, first of all, and I mean that. They're all young men that I respect the programs that they came from, and the job that they had done and their opportunity to have a good senior season are a junior and senior season for two of them. I expect Armand to be in competition for the running back job immediately. He's big. He's physical. He's a one-cut guy and I think he's a physical running back. Zach is a kid that can play a safety corner combo. We're going to start him off at corner first. Evan Rambo is an outside linebacker. We're going to transition him into Willy. He's had success at Cal, and then RJ is going to be competing for our starting job. All four of those guys are going to be in major roles immediately. Q. Coach, previous years Tech really hasn't used the tight end in the offense. I wanted to know about how your offense utilizes tight ends as far as a receiver to control the middle and impacting the running game? MATT WELLS: Great question. Tight end is a big part of our offense. I think our guys a hybrid. You're going to see our guys flex out, where it looks like a wide receiver and wide receiver formations, you're going to see him in line, in the backfield, those guys have to be -- they're multi-facetted guys, they've got to be extremely smart, be able to run, be graceful, catch balls, hopefully their speed mismatches for linebacker and size mismatches for safeties. That's what we want to get to. We had great success at the last place I was at. I know three that played in the NFL and certainly what I want to get to here and I like our guys right now, Donta Thompson had a good spring, I think he's going to improve over the month of August and certainly help our offense and to expand I think it helps you in the run game, I think it gives you more variety. The thing that's left unsaid is the ability to play defense in the Big 12 and for our guys to be able to go against a run game in the mentality and we want a more run mentality even though we're going to play the spread and be fast and be aggressive throwing the ball we have to be able to defend the run you've got to be able to stop the run and defend the run and you've going to be able to stone the run in my mind in November if you want to be a good consistent program and win and that's what I think about with the tight end position. Q. Matt, I know you were around football growing up in Sallisaw, even though your dad wasn't a football guy, but just growing up there, what do you feel like the impact of the town, just your experience there, how has it impacted your career and now how is it impacting what you're doing at Tech? MATT WELLS: Growing up in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, it's 7,000 people on a good day. If you're not sure where everybody is on a Friday night just look at the lights, which is like Oklahoma which is like small towns. Just growing up there, three sports, I played three sports and you grow up and that's part of that culture of that town, and my parents raised us that way. I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's a great place. I don't get back there near enough, but it's nice to be closer to home for my mom to come see us play a little bit, and a bunch of friends and high school coaches that have already made the trek down to Lubbock. But I think it shaped who I am, a small town guy, real simple. But it's the love of the game and the respect of the game that I think that was instilled in me at an early age for all my -- from all my coaches and I think that you saw the second part of your question, how does it impact you today? I think I'm a product of a lot of those high school coaches at Sallisaw not only in football but in baseball and in basketball that kind of molded me into who I am today. Q. Coach, you have taken over a program whose most successful coach was fired controversially. Under that coach at home against the Big 12, the team went 30-10. Since his firing they are 10-25 at Jones AT&T Stadium against Big 12 Conference play. How do you excite a fan base that has seen a decade of losing? MATT WELLS: First and foremost, I think winning games at home is one of the most important things we can do. It's been a focus of mine as a head coach since I've been at Texas Tech. We want to make Jones Stadium one of the hardest plays to play in the Big 12. The respect that I have for our fans and our fan base has grown. I didn't know about it to be honest with you, before I was hired but I've been able to see that through the success of the basketball team and it's something I respect, their respect for Tech, the Red Raiders, they will travel, they come out and they're passionate, they're loud and the Raider Power chant is real and I want to give them a winner at home and I think creating that atmosphere at Jones Stadium is so important to having special songs to me when you go undefeated at them, the goal will always be to go 6-0 at home and when you do that you're going to have a special, special season and I just think when you're a we us in our program. It's not only me, it's our players, our fan base and I respect that the passion that they have for Texas Tech and I'm looking forward to playing in front of them. Q. To piggyback on the offensive questions, when you looked at Tech's roster do you have the physical personnel to play a tight end play hard core running, the offensive linemen playing run blocking. Do you have that right now? Can you play your offense with what you inherited? MATT WELLS: I believe so. We're going to continue to develop that tight end position. We're going to continue to recruit that tight end position, but I think there are several candidates there to be able to look at it. I mentioned Donta [Thompson] earlier, Tyler Carr, Simon Gonzalez is a young freshman, Travis Koontz is a junior college kid that I'm excited about, just got in this summer. Between all those guys it could be a committee, several of them that you see, but I think those guys are talented enough to do what we're going to do and to be able to use all of our talents. I think the progress of Armand Shyne, the grad transfer running back, Ta'Zhawn Henry, SaRodorick Thompson at running back, there may be times when we play two running backs and take a tight end out of the game. It is about using your personnel wisely to their talents but I certainly think that we can do what we've done with the tight end at Tech. Q. Coach, through the years Tech has been known for scoring a lot of points but they have been known for giving up a lot of points. Defensively, what did you want to accomplish and what were you able to get through to your kids during the spring portion and take into the fall about what you want to be defensively? MATT WELLS: I think the biggest thing to consistently winning in the Big 12 for my tenure here at Texas Tech is we have to play championship caliber defense, we have to play the play great win at defense, there is not a time that is ever more challenging than to play that in the Big 12 than right now. In the last several years arguably you could say that this conference and there may be some that are similar but I don't think better in the quality of play at quarterback, at receiver and at play caller than there is right now in the Big 12. It's a challenge to play defense every single Saturday in this league and I know that's something that Keith Patterson and our defensive staff are excited to do and our players are excited to do and I think that's also a little bit of a misnomer, I think, if you will, in the Big 12 because there are certainly great defensive coaches here, I think at the top is Gary Patterson, TCU has been done it for a long time, Todd Orlando at Texas, Jon Heacock at Iowa State. There are a lot of great defensive coaches that have major challenges every Saturday and I respect the league and I respect the challenges and I respect what has gone on before me and I'm an offensive guy. I like scoring points more than anybody but I like winning better and I think part of winning is great defense. Q. I'm curious, why did you decide to hit the grad transfer market so hard? Why did you decide to bring in guys right away who are upperclassmen? MATT WELLS: We made that decision in January as we came in and that's a hard transition in December when you come in with that early signing period just, shoot, two weeks away. We got to the early part of January, we made that decision. It's two things, number one, it's certainly something that we had success with at the last place I was at and we had success in the grad transfer market. It's also something that Texas Tech has had success with and you saw 2 out of the 5 starters being transfer grads in basketball and you can see and the player can see that it's been done in Lubbock, Texas. But I think it was a way for us to get old and we needed some help and that's a market that I am happy for the players to have these days. It's think it is something that we will play in at Tech. We will over the next several years and I look forward to having success in that market. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. Best of luck to you for the season. MATT WELLS: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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