Texas Tech waits for Kingsbury to get program running
Five years after being hired, popular coach’s record is only 30-33.
Kliff Kingsbury is still popular at Texas Tech, five years after his hiring as coach unified a fractured football program at his alma mater.
As much as fans on the West Texas plains want one of their own to succeed, patience wanes with just two winning seasons and a losing overall record head- ing into the former quarterback’s sixth year.
Once dubbed “Coach Cool” because of adoring students, his sunglasses on the sideline and a perpetual 5 o’clock shadow, Kingsbury feels the urgency, with or without his athletic director saying the Red Raiders should be relevant in the Big 12 championship race every November.
Though that hasn’t happened under Kingsbury, Kirby Hocutt declared immediately after Texas Tech beat Texas last November that the coach he put in charge of a program for the first time at age 33, with just two years of experience as an offensive coordinator, would return for another season. Kingsbury’s contract runs through 2020.
“I understand that what we’ve been the last couple of years isn’t good enough, record-wise,” Kingsbury told The Associated Press a few weeks before the start of spring practice, which wraps up Saturday. “And we have to show improvement. That comes with the territory. Being an alum of Texas Tech, I want it as much as anybody if not more.”
Hired after Johnny Manziel