Five years ago, Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt decided to hire a little-known baseball manager who had only led a junior college program. Two years ago, Hocutt decided to bring in a basketball coach from Little Rock.

Since then, Texas Tech baseball has reached three College World Series. The basketball team reached the Elite Eight for the first time in school history, and the basketball coach ended up on the cover of Dave Campbell’s Texas Basketball (on bookshelves now, hint hint).

Hocutt went deep into his bag of tricks to find Tim Tadlock and Chris Beard to take over two of the most forward-facing programs on campus. On Thursday night, Hocutt did it again.

Texas Tech hired Utah State coach Matt Wells as the 16th coach in program history. With the decision to hire Wells, a coach who has never coached in the state of Texas, Hocutt is putting his neck out again for a relatively unknown coach. But, as the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported, Hocutt got the same feeling from Wells as he did from his other two tremendous hires.

But for a Texas Tech fan base that’s reeling after an inconsistent Kliff Kingsbury era, there was understandable hesitation. Wells posted just a 44-34 record in the Mountain West. He failed to win an outright conference championship. After the disaster of Tommy Tuberville’s exit, Texas Tech fans want a coach who wants to be in Lubbock; Wells has never lived in the city before. The closest thing he has to Texas ties is his brother, who spent one year as the wide receivers coach at Denton High School.

Hocutt promised that this program could be “elite” again, the same way that basketball and baseball are now. Can Wells be the guy to take Texas Tech back to Big 12 contention?

Only time will answer those questions. But when looking at Wells’ success in full context, Hocutt has made an impressive hire.

There are only five coaches in the history of the Mountain West to win MWC Coach of the Year multiple times: Gary Patterson, Urban Meyer, Rocky Long, Sonny Lubick and Matt Wells. Long and Lubick are arguably the best coaches in the history of their schools. Patterson and Meyer are top five coaches in Power Five football.

Wells, a former Utah State quarterback, deserved all the credit that he’s received. Utah State has traditionally been one of the toughest schools to win at in the Group of Five. When Gary Anderson arrived at Utah State in 2009, the Aggies had just two winning seasons in the previous 25 years. Wells led them to five bowl trips in six seasons.

In many ways, Wells understands the nuances of coaching at a school like Texas Tech. Utah State was the third most significant program in the state, behind Utah and BYU, and is fairly isolated. That put a premium on evaluating talent and building relationships early.

Those skills will come in handy at Texas Tech. More importantly, Wells now has a much more attractive program and situation to sell. He’ll need to add some Texas ties to his staff. Keeping former South Oak Cliff coach Emmett Jones would be a great start. If he can do that, the Red Raiders will be in good shape.

By hiring Wells, Hocutt is sending the program in a new direction. The spectre of Mike Leach has hung over the program for years. Letting Kliff Kingsbury go likely signals the end of the pure air raid – Wells runs more of a traditional spread offense. However, there’s still plenty to be excited about.

Utah State ranked No. 11 in total offense – a spot ahead of Texas Tech. The Aggies only trailed Oklahoma and Alabama in scoring offense. Wells runs an offense that likes to score a lot of points, but also stays balanced with a strong running game. Offensive coordinator David Yost was named a Broyles Award semifinalist, an award given to the best assistant in college football.

Red Raiders fans will be glad to hear that Wells and his staff are excellent at developing quarterbacks. Current Utah State quarterback Jordan Love didn’t have any other FBS offers, but he earned All-Mountain West this year. Wells also helped develop Chuckie Keeton into a star before he struggled with injuries.

Yost was quarterback coach to Chase Daniel, Blaine Gabbert and Brad Smith at Missouri in the mid-2000s. He has experience scheming against Big 12 teams from his time under Gary Pinkel. It might make fans feel better to know that he was an assistant for a year under Mike Leach at Wazzu too.

Defensively, the Aggies have consistently been excellent too. Wells hit on defensive coordinator Todd Orlando early. Keith Patterson, who’s coming to Texas Tech, also helped lead a strong unit this season. Wells has fielded three defenses that allowed fewer than 23 points per game.

Utah State ranked top 25 on both sides of the ball in S&P+. Only 14 other programs accomplished that feat this season.

It goes without saying that things are going to be different in Lubbock. There was a tremendous allure to having a hometown hero running the beloved air raid at Texas Tech. The new coach is a complete outsider, and that’s understandably scary. 

However, Kingsbury led Texas Tech to just three bowl games in six seasons. The Red Raiders never won more than seven games, and finished with a winning record only twice. Having a great offense simply isn't enough. 

Kingsbury is gone. Leach is gone. The time for living in the past is over.

Wells has coached balanced teams that excel in every phase of the game. His teams are physical, but quick. They’ve won nine and 10 games in a brutal Mountain West, despite dealing with disadvantages relative to other programs. Wells has taken Utah State almost everywhere Texas Tech wants to go.

Things are going to look different in Lubbock. But ultimately, if the Red Raiders want to get back to an elite level, it’s time to try something new.