Twitter poll results: Winning more important than sentiment

A little over a week ago, we posed the following question on Twitter in hopes of getting a better feel of what Texas Tech fans look for in a head coach:

This poll is absolutely fascinating to me. I thought the results would’ve been flipped. I know how passionate we Tech fans are about the city of Lubbock and having that Red Raider pride, but it seems the majority of you prefer winning over sentiment.

If I were to vote, I’d have voted along with the majority here. I don’t care if Tech has to replace a coach every three years for a decade if it means we’re going to win 10 games a year.

Because eventually, a program that’s winning 10 games a year for a prolonged period of time is going to become that high-end job that blossoming coaches go after.

That’s the difference between Houston and Texas Tech. They’ll win their double digit games and pick up some hardware from bowl games, but they’ll never be that top-flight destination as long as they’re in a Group of 5 conference.

The Red Raiders can take Houston’s model of grabbing the top up-and-coming coaches and flipping them for a host of victories and maybe a Big 12 title or two. Then, that coach can go get his Florida job and we’ll replace him with the next best hot shot.

We can actually sustain that success, unlike Houston, because we’re in a Power 5 conference.

This was just a really interesting question and I was really surprised by the results. It seems like you, the fan, are over the incessant desire for someone who’s “from Texas Tech” and are ready to go after a coach who can win games.

When you limit your coaching search to just former Tech players, you’re going to have a lot of trouble finding a tier-one head football coach. I mean, off the top of my head, I can name the top-10 coaches in college football and none of them are coaching at the school they attended.

Yes, there are exceptions to the rule. Paul Chyst, David Shaw, Jim Harbaugh and Scott Frost all are coaching at their alma maters, but each of those schools have exponentially better track records with their football programs. You can’t really compare Texas Tech’s football history with Wisconsin, Stanford, Michigan and Nebraska. They’ve had better programs and consequently better players to choose from to coach their schools.

I’m not saying Tech can’t have both a coach who loves the university and can win at a high level with regularity. It’s just pretty far-fetched at this point.

Unless Lincoln Riley wants to give up that lame Oklahoma job and come back to Lubbock. Then we can have both.