List of Texas Tech Red Raiders head football coaches
The Texas Tech Red Raiders football program represents Texas Tech University in the Big 12 Conference of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. Since starting in 1925, the program has had 17 head coaches and several interim coaches.
The team began as the Matadors from 1925 to 1936. The nickname, suggested by the wife of the first coach Ewing Y. Freeland, reflected the campus’s Spanish Renaissance architecture. In 1937, the team officially became the Red Raiders. Pete Cawthon, the third head coach, led Texas Tech to its first conference championship and a bowl berth, a 7–6 loss to West Virginia in the Sun Bowl.
After bowl losses under two coaches, the Red Raiders earned their first postseason win in the 1952 Sun Bowl under head coach DeWitt Weaver. Before leaving the Border Conference in 1956, Texas Tech won nine conference championships—the most in the conference. Weaver and his predecessor Dell Morgan each won four conference titles, a record for the school.
Texas Tech joined the Southwest Conference in 1960. They won conference championships in 1976 (Steve Sloan) and 1994 (Spike Dykes). When the Southwest Conference dissolved, Texas Tech became a charter member of the Big 12 in 1996.
Under Mike Leach, the program won its first division championship in 2008. Leach was fired after the 2009 season, and Ruffin McNeill served as interim head coach for the Alamo Bowl.
Tommy Tuberville coached from 2010 to 2012, resigning after the regular season. Kliff Kingsbury, a former Texas Tech quarterback, led the team from 2013 to 2018. Matt Wells coached from 2019 to 2021 and was fired before the season ended. Sonny Cumbie served as interim head coach for the remainder of 2021.
Texas Tech hired Joey McGuire on November 8, 2021, to lead the team in the 2022 season. McGuire had previously been the associate head coach and outside linebackers coach at Baylor University.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 07:59 (CET).