I tend to agree, not a home run or a complete bust but a solid hire.
It certainly was a wild few days in Lubbock with a lot of drama but ultimately, I believe Kirby Hocutt landed his first choice.
In a statement last night Hocutt stated that he was on the phone with Wells on Sunday and interviewed Wells in Salt Lake City on Monday. Kliff was fired Sunday morning, meaning Wells was most likely Hocutt's first call. Hocutt knew exactly who he wanted and landed him.
As for the rest of the drama, the Holgerson interest was 100% real. I get the popular thing is going to be to disbelieve anything remotely positive about Texas Tech. However, multiple sources within the athletic department and two prominent boosters confirmed that the boosters were in contact with Holgerson. Holgerson agreed to meet with the boosters and Hocutt in Atlanta and contingent on an offer, Holgerson was ready to hold a press conference in Lubbock on Thursday, with Hocutt the boosters and Holgerson flying back to Lubbock on their jet.
This move was led by two prominent Texas Tech boosters that played for Leach and Holgerson, still keep in contact with Holgerson on a regular basis. They set this meeting up and told Hocutt that if he hires Holgerson, Kliff's buyout will be covered as well as all the funds needed to renovate the football stadium.
Hocutt balked on Thursday morning and declined to meet with Holgerson, stating that he's already gotten approval from the President to hire Wells and Wells was his guy.
This pissed the boosters off and they pulled their donation to renovate the football stadium.
Huge risky move by Hocutt as Holgerson would have been the splash hire and power move within the conference. Every Tech fan would have signed off on it, recruiting would have ticked up and ticket sales would have been good.
No one except Hocutt knows exactly why but my suspicion is that he's tired of the Leach coaching tree and the Tech boosters who are living in the past. Wants a clean slate to move forward on and he really likes Matt Wells.
Hocutt also interviewed Jim Leavitt, his former coach at KSU but the interview did not go well.
As far as Littrell, we don't know for sure if he got an interview but as he's part of the Leach tree, it would make sense not to hire him if you don't want Holgerson for that reason. I've also heard that Littrell makes it clear to everyone that his priority is the OU job and he will leave as soon as it becomes available.
I would have liked Holgerson, Littrell or Neal Brown. All good coaches but Hocutt has his reasons and he's made two home run hires in Tim Tadlock and Chris Beard, Tech fans really have no choice but to trust him here.