2021 could be make or break for Sonny Cumbie

2021 could be make or break for Sonny Cumbie

For the broad bulk of the previous two many years, Texas Tech soccer lovers have expended most of their time stressing about the program’s health and fitness on the defensive facet of the football.  That’s created the defensive coordinator of the working day 1 of the most stubborn and mentioned figures in West Texas.  But this calendar year, there are huge concerns to be answered on the other facet of the ball and that places offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie near the middle of any discussion about the potential of the 2021 Pink Raiders.

In simple fact, this could pretty very well be a vocation-defining year for the shortly-to-be 40-calendar year-outdated mentor.  That’s due to the fact, for the initially time in his profession, he will have absolutely free reign of a faculty offense.

When Cumbie was named the offensive coordinator below Kliff Kingsbury in 2013, he held that title in title only.  That’s since every person knew that Kingsbury was not only planning the offense but that he was also calling the performs and creating the quarterbacks.

So to get some more autonomy, in 2014 Cumbie remaining Lubbock to be the OC at TCU.  But inspite of generating that bold shift to get out from under just one head coach who dictated the offense, he would come across that in Fort Really worth, an additional head mentor, Gary Patterson, would keep far more impact about the offense than an OC would choose.

Despite the point that Patterson is considered a defensive genius who focuses principally on that aspect of the ball, make no miscalculation, he exerts loads of influence on his offensive coaching personnel.  It is identical to the partnership former Texas Tech head mentor Tommy Tuberville experienced with his OC, Neal Brown, whom Tuberville severely handcuffed all through the pair’s time in Lubbock.

But it was not just Patterson’s unwillingness to allow Cumbie off of his leash that designed lifestyle hard for Cumbie in Cowtown.  It was also the actuality that there were too several cooks in the TCU kitchen area.  That is simply because, for 4 of Cumbie’s 7 seasons at TCU, such as 2020, Dough Meacham was also on staff with 3 of individuals decades observing the pair of coaches named co-offensive coordinators.  In point, the predicament with the TCU offense turned so convoluted previous year that the media that protected the staff frequently experienced no idea which mentor was contacting performs.

Even so, Cumbie is now plainly the chief of the Texas Tech offense in 2021.  Matt Wells has stated that he intends to allow Cumbie operate the offense as Cumbie sees suit and that has to be the prospect that Cumbie has been on the lookout for considering that 2014.

Of system, that also usually means that there are no far more excuses.  The buck stops at Cumbie and how he performs as an offensive coordinator this drop could have very long-long lasting reverberations all through the Texas Tech football application.

Several truly feel that the offense will be the wildcard of this year’s staff.  After all, the protection returns 9 starters and a host of important backups when also that includes numerous affect transfers these types of as security Marquis Waters and corners Rayshad Williams and Malik Dunlap.  In other words and phrases, defensive coordinator Keith Patterson should have his finest defense still though at Tech.

That places the onus on the offense to hold up its conclude of the deal.  And a repeat of very last year’s overall performance (a single that saw Tech score under 30 points for each video game for the first time due to the fact the 2000 season) is not likely to slash it.

As a result, Cumbie has to get an offense with a new starting QB, two new starters on the offensive line, and an unusually eco-friendly group of receivers and uncover a way to place details on the board in a fashion that befits the fashionable period of Texas Tech football.

If that doesn’t happen, the glow will be completely off of Cumbie as an OC.  Right after all, he arrives to Lubbock with quite a few remarkably typical seasons of manufacturing less than his belt.

Previous calendar year, TCU was just No. 51 in the country in complete offense.  That was 11 places worse than the Red Raiders completed.  What’s far more, in the other three seasons in which Cumbie was the lone OC for the Horned Frogs, his offenses completed no greater than 45 in the state.

Tech requires better than that this yr.  If an unencumbered Cumbie can develop a prime 15 offense in Lubbock, this could be the period that Tech finally returns to the land of the successful and Cumbie will begin to have his title stated as a likely head mentor in the producing.  But if he cannot make one thing greater than he developed in Fort Worthy of, Wells will probable be fired and Cumbie pretty much absolutely won’t endure possibly.

So in essence, this is certainly a make-or-split calendar year for Cumbie just as it is for Wells.  The two or linked collectively this tumble and the fast foreseeable future of Texas Tech soccer hangs in the harmony.  Here’s hoping that now that his wings are no lengthier clipped, Cumbie can eventually soar to the heights a lot of have constantly thought he would get to as a coach.

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