Instant Reaction: Kingsbury’s luck finally ran out

Kingsbury was an all-time great Red Raider player, but his legacy as a head football coach has been sealed - he was bad hire. Before the apologist come out and say, “But, who would you want coaching Alan Bowman as he develops?” I dunno about you, but I don’t give a darn about having great quarterbacks on bad teams. We need a whole lot more than a quarterback coach to win us 8-10 games per year. Kingsbury’s fate was sealed with his fourth losing season in six years. His tenure plagued by poor staff hires, bad defense, sporadic offense, and plenty of predictable outcomes. I’ll admit, I was personally bullish that we’d win, at minimum, seven games this year, and at max nine. Last year was mostly the same story too - we were a few missed kicks away from 7-5. But, here we are and let the speculation begin. I’ll bluntly state it though, I’m pissed about what’s happened and I honestly have doubts that we’ll land the right person for the role. Regardless, I could rant forever, so lets get these highlights over with:

McLane Carter - Weak armed and immobile are no way to go into a Big 12 football game, yet we trotted out a guy who was, at best, 80% healthy. If the poor guy can’t push off his ankle on throws, and he doesn’t have a Mahomes-like cannon....what did Kingsbury expect from Carter? Roll out Colt Garrett and at least have someone at 100%.

Da’Leon Ward/Demarcus Felton - Honestly, I was shocked we committed to the run so much, and I think these guys rewarded us for it. Both Felton, and Ward, had great runs so it’s a consolation prize that they played well.

Seth Collins - Great game from Collins, and hopefully a glimpse of what’s to come next year. He could be dangerous via the slot, and I can’t wait to see what Seth Littrell, Brent Venables, Bob Stoops, or (insert hot coaching name) does with him.

T.J. Vasher/Antoine Wesley - Wesley was blanketed all game, but Vasher played pretty ok. Carter could hardly get him the rock, but when he did Vasher did something with it. I hope Wesley comes back next year by the way....but if he goes to the NFL I don’t blame him.

Jordyn Brooks - He played sideline to sideline all game long and was a definite highlight. I fully expect him and Riko Jeffers to get some preseason love.

Jah’Shawn Johnson - He made several great plays in the open-field, and he’ll leave Texas Tech as one of the best defensive backs we’ve had in close to a decade. Which, that stands out as impressive until you remember just how bad we’ve been the last 10 years.

De’Quan Bowman - Talk about a guy you’ve loved and hated all season. Today, I loved him though and he played his best game as a Red Raider. Bill Parcels used to say that if you can return punts/kicks it doesn’t matter what the level of competition is....just saying, Bowman is a pretty electric returner so long as he doesn’t do dumb stuff like field punts on the two yard line, drop kickoffs, or run backwards.

Clayton Hadfield - Probably a top 5 kicker in school history and someone that Red Raider fans will miss more than they know next season. I’m curious if he’ll get any NFL looks?

I won’t ramble on today about how Kingsbury set the program back a decade, but managed to run a clean/respectable program that people could admire. The reality is, I don’t want a guy like Art Briles, but I wouldn’t mind someone with a little more grit/want-to than Kingsbury. A coach that get in a refs face, texts a recruit illegally, and publicly calls out people when they mess up. Kingsbury was none of those things, and we need a personality with more grit if we’re going to come back perennial bowl contention. It’ll be an extremely long bowl season, but at least we can get excited that this new coach will finally be “The One.” Personally, I say we pay Mike Leach his $900k, and offer him $5M-$6M/year...this curse he’s placed on us has gone on long enough. Until, 2019....Wreck ‘Em.