In the last installment of the state's best position groups by the Dallas Morning News bloggers, they rank the coaching staffs.
Here are their rankings:
1) TCU
2) Baylor
3) Texas A&M
4) Texas
5) TEXAS TECH
6) Houston
7) Rice
8) SMU
9) UTSA
10) Texas State
11) North Texas
12) UTEP
Here's what DMN blogger Tommy Magelssen had to say about Tech's coaching staff:
The Red Raiders have a young staff, led by one of the youngest head coaches in college football. Kliff Kingsbury, who owns a 12-13 overall record in two seasons, showed his chops as an offensive coach, guiding Houston to a dynamic attack and later coaching Johnny Manziel to a Heisman Trophy at Texas A&M. His assembly of a staff was very clear two years ago, and he has hit some home runs (Sonny Combie and Mike Jinks) but also misfired (Matt Wallerstedt). The addition of new defensive coordinator David Gibbs immediately adds experience and a pedigree to the Red Raiders staff that was missing. While many of the staff members are young and haven't spent too much of their professional life outside of Lubbock, no one can question the addition that Gibbs, 47, brings. Texas Tech has a tradition of coaches leaving after short stints, but not for the best of reasons -- Kingsbury hopes any departing coaches that leave move on to bigger and better things (like Cumbie), which makes this an ambitious group.
Tech Thoughts:
Hard to argue the position our coaching staff within the rankings. They have yet to prove they can win consistently. Their 12-13 record bears that out. Every staff above them has had success at some point in their career and even a few below them have had past success. I think this staff has a ton of learning due to their youth. Bringing Gibbs on was huge for two reasons, bringing a top-notch defense and experience to a group that was in desperate need of it. The question is can the coaching staff learn quickly enough. College football is a results based business. This staff will only be given so much time to learn before they have to start winning more games.
Miscellaneous Thoughts:
1) I would have expected Larry Coker to be a little higher on the list. He is the only coach on the list with a national title on his head coaching resume.
2) Tom Herman and Chad Morris were ranked higher than expected considering this is their first head coaching stop at the FBS level. If they are as good as some expect, I would think they stint at their current colleges will be short-lived as they move up the food chain.
3) David Bailiff at Rice is an under the radar coach that wins quite a few games with very little help. He has had several losing seasons, but he also has a couple of conference titles to hang is hat on.
4) Funny that Dennis Franchione is ranked at lowly #10. To be fair he has had some relative success at Texas State. He should just ride of into the sunset from there.
The next DMN position group ranking will be the coaches released on Friday. That will be their last installment of the state rankings.