The hot seats are extra toasty this Thanksgiving weekend as several head coaches around the country will be fighting for a win to save their jobs. One such coach in the crosshairs is likely Texas Tech’s Kliff Kingsbury, who kept his job last season with a late rally but suddenly finds himself right back in the same fight with his team on a four-game losing streak.
Though things were looking promising for the Red Raiders a few months ago, injuries to QB Alan Bowman has allowed the program to slide back to mediocrity and they need a win against Baylor at AT&T Stadium on Saturday just to make a bowl game in 2018. While some athletic directors tend to stick to just the standard boilerplate statements at this time of the year, Red Raiders boss Kirby Hocutt did not hold back on the state of the program on his weekly spot on a local Lubbock radio station.
“We’ve talked on this show about our expectations and where we aspire to be and wanting to be relevant. But you are what your record says you are and we’re not where we expect to be,” Hocutt said, according to the Dallas Morning News. You know, football is the ultimate team sport. You have 11 men on the field and you’re only going to be as successful as each individual executes their responsibility. Unfortunately, we just seem to continue to have lapses in focus, lack of discipline at certain times. Those mistakes, those penalties continue to affect us and the success we’re not experiencing right now.”
Needless to say, that’s not exactly any sort of rousing bit of support for the job Kingsbury has been doing. While it remains to be seen if Tech would dismiss their head coach -- a successful alum of the program, it should be noted -- speculation is already turning toward who might be in line for the job if it comes open.
Per Austin American-Statesman columnist Kirk Bohls:
I'll be very surprised if Kliff Kingsbury survives this season at Texas Tech. Source tells me if he's fired, Tech will look seriously at Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables.
— Kirk Bohls (@kbohls) November 22, 2018
It’s not entirely surprising to hear that Hocutt could go after Brent Venables considering the two played football together at Kansas State. The Clemson defensive coordinator will likely be in the running for the Wildcats job it that also comes open this offseason and he is certainly no stranger to the Big 12 given the many years he spent at Oklahoma before taking the gig with the Tigers.
Who knows what Hocutt will end up doing over the coming days but it does seem pretty clear that all the parties involved in this one will have plenty of options over the coming weeks.