Wells at ‘The Right Place at The Right Time’
Jan 18, 2024 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Matt Wells is grateful. After a lengthy journey, he sits in his office in the Vanier Family Football Complex in a white Powercat polo, tracing back his roots, delighting in the present, and looking toward the future.
"I couldn't be more excited about this opportunity at Kansas State," he says.
Wells on January 4 was announced as K-State's new co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach/associate head coach.
He brings nine years of head coaching experience and comes to K-State after spending the last two years at Oklahoma as an advisor to the head coach while serving as an offensive analyst. He also served as head coach at his alma mater, Utah State, from 2013-2018, and at Texas Tech from 2019-2021.
"I have known Matt for a very long time, and he is someone who will bring a lot to the table as a member of our staff — from head coaching experience to developing some of the top quarterbacks in the game," K-State head coach Chris Klieman says. "He will be a great addition to our offensive room and system, providing tremendous x's and o's experience as well as a recruiting prowess that mirrors our philosophy of identifying and developing talent."
Matt Wells sat down with K-State Sports Extra's D. Scott Fritchen to discuss his path to K-State:
D. Scott Fritchen: Welcome to K-State. What have the last couple weeks been like for you?
Matt Wells: It's been exciting, busy, crazy. You feel like you're catching up recruiting wise all the while just being so grateful for an opportunity with a head coach that I've known and thoroughly respect. This is a program that has been so, so consistent over the last couple of decades. It's a winning program that is so stable in an instable profession. I know how much respect I have for the culture of this program because I think that's reflected on the football field when you play them. Having played them four out of the last five years at two different schools, I just have so much respect for the program outside looking in, and I'm fortunate to now be in the inside.
It's a program that is one of the toughest "outs" in the country. What I mean by that is they rarely have pre-snap penalties, rarely have post-whistle penalties. They run the ball and stop the run and have really good quarterback play, and they're really, really, really tough to beat. When they do fall short, it's usually the other team beat them — they didn't lose the game. In our profession, that speaks volumes to discipline, commitment and accountability.
Fritchen: Take me back to that initial conversation with Coach Klieman about this coaching opportunity.
Wells: As the end of the season in December progressed for me personally, the thought of what's next for me — I told my wife basically three things: I want to go to work for somebody that I know and respect, I want to go to a consistent winning program that is stable because I don't want to be moving my family around — our youngest son is going to be a sophomore, and I want to give him stability in his high school career — and finally, if I had another choice I'd like to coach some really good players. She looked at me and said, "How many schools are in Division I? 133?" I said, "Yes." She said, "So there are about three or four left now that you have all those expectations." Then about three days later, Chris called for the first time. It's easy for people to see what my priorities and wants or wishes were and how they matched up. I feel so fortunate. This is a God thing, and the Lord has led us here. There is no question in my mind. This is the right place at the right time.
Fritchen: Tell me about your familiarity with Conor Riley?
Wells: I'm very familiar with him from play of the offensive line over the last five years. In our profession, your film is your resume. The play of the K-State offensive line in the last five years is pretty evident around the Big 12 in coaching circles, and he's been the architect of that. I'm very familiar with him in that regard. Personally, I haven't been around him a ton until now, but we have a lot of common ground in offensive football and in organization, and also the steps we think this offense needs to take progressing forward with a new quarterback and a couple new coaches in these roles.
Fritchen: Speaking of quarterback, what are your impressions of Avery Johnson?
Wells: Extremely God-given talent. He's a football junkie. He's passionate and has the desire to put the work in to be great, which I think separates really good players from great players. My responsibility will be to help push him in that way and encourage him and push him and strain him to be great on an everyday basis. Best will be the standard and I mean "best" by being my best today. How do I be my best? And staying out of the comparison game, but daily striving to be your best and then maybe we look up in a few years and he's absolutely "the best." That would be my desire for the starting quarterback, any starting quarterback at Kansas State.
Fritchen: When you go on the road, what are the qualities you look for in a quarterback?
Wells: Leadership, "The Dude," a guy that's going to be able to make 10 guys around him play better. That takes time and relationships and trust hopefully matched by a work ethic that's second-to-none at that position. You have to have the talent to be able to deliver on Friday night or on Saturdays. I look for toughness, a physical toughness, a mental toughness to be able to play the next play and to play each play independently of the last, that's a mental toughness. I look for accuracy over arm strength. The arm has to be good enough and strong enough to make the throws that we need him to make. We need a mobility that is more elusive than anything, which now involves pocket movement and pocket presence, and mobility out on the edge. Obviously, the faster you are the better, but you have to have an element of being elusive and having a presence in the pocket.
Fritchen: In 2012 at Utah State, you set the school record in scoring and total yards. What made that offense so special?
Wells: Well, first of all, let's be real: Players make plays and players win games. We had really good players. I think we had a bunch of guys that were really, really coachable, they were smart, and we were able to do more with them and put more on their plate, and we had really good players. We were very multiple. We played out of 11 personnel, which was primarily what we played out of, but we played in a lot of 12 and a little bit of some 22 and a little bit of 10 and a little bit of 20 with two backs, so we were very multiple. We played with tempo, we slowed it down, we got in big sets running the ball, and we spread people out and played fast, and we had an element of quarterback run game. We were very, very multiple that year.
Fritchen: You've seen the Big 12 through two different lenses in Texas Tech and Oklahoma. How competitive is the Big 12 and how much more competitive might it be given the incoming teams?
Wells: The incoming teams added this year combined with the incoming teams that have been in here one year makes this league as competitive as its ever been top to bottom. That's my most recent opinion for the last five years. I'm not acting like I was in the league 20 years ago. Top to bottom, when you add Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado, every Saturday you have to have your A game.
Fritchen: What do you like best about K-State?
Wells: Right now, the program is what has drawn me here, the head coach, first and foremost, and the consistency and stability in the program, the winning aspect. Lately, the people of Manhattan, and the reception I've felt whenever I do get the chance to leave the building, which isn't often right now, just the commitment here, the commitment of the administration to be great, the people and loyalty, I've felt it. I've been told a lot about it. I've only been here a week, but I've been told a lot about it from a lot of alums, most notably the last guy I worked for (Brent Venables), so I have a great impression of Manhattan and the loyal fan base. Certainly, that's a huge thing for coaches to be able to coach at a place that has as passionate of a fan base as we have.
Fritchen: Tell me about your family.
Wells: I've been married to Jen for almost 24 years, and we have three kids. Jadyn is 21 and a junior at Texas Tech and works in the football office in recruiting and is very involved in her sorority and is crushing school right now. Ella is 18 and graduating from high school this spring and is still in Lubbock. She is doing a great job in school and is a former competitive gymnast who is figuring out where to go for college. Wyatt is our 15-year old, and he's a freshman in high school. He enjoys playing quarterback and playing baseball.
Fritchen: What have you learned most about yourself during your journey?
Wells: I've learned a lot in the last two years. The last two years has provided a tremendous perspective for me to be around Coach Venables and the Oklahoma program to see it through a different lens but as a former head coach in so many ways, programmatic ways to run a program on a daily basis, and yearly basis in terms of discipline, accountability, recruiting, staff, organization, structure, every day. It's been a time for me of really rejuvenation and energy. With the lens and perspective, there's been so much learning for me, learning a different way to do it, and also being confirmed with things that we'd done that I'm seeing done again in the right way. The power of confirmation for all of us is a neat thing.
I've also opened my eyes to a few new ways to do things. I think it's just continuing to learn, to be grounded in more of your core values by reinforcements or confirmation, but also just continuing to learn, whether it's football Xs and Os or programmatically, and never staying still and never being complacent and always climbing and growing and being open-minded with a tremendous amount of humility that there are people that can pour into you and teach you. I welcome all of that.
I think the last two years has been awesome for me. I've also been afforded an opportunity to coach my son's baseball team in the spring and going back and forth from OU that in this profession, so many coaches miss out on being dads. For me, it was a time that I don't take for granted, and I'm very thankful for in knowing that if I was still in the previous position that wouldn't have happened because of the amount of commitment to that position. It was an awesome two years going back and forth to Norman. I'm so thankful to OU and Coach Venables and the whole staff for that opportunity as well as welcoming me with open arms.
But I couldn't be more excited about this opportunity at Kansas State and being back on the grass and getting to coach some elite quarterbacks and helping Coach Klieman and the staff go chase a Big 12 Championship.
Matt Wells is grateful. After a lengthy journey, he sits in his office in the Vanier Family Football Complex in a white Powercat polo, tracing back his roots, delighting in the present, and looking toward the future.
"I couldn't be more excited about this opportunity at Kansas State," he says.
Wells on January 4 was announced as K-State's new co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach/associate head coach.
He brings nine years of head coaching experience and comes to K-State after spending the last two years at Oklahoma as an advisor to the head coach while serving as an offensive analyst. He also served as head coach at his alma mater, Utah State, from 2013-2018, and at Texas Tech from 2019-2021.
"I have known Matt for a very long time, and he is someone who will bring a lot to the table as a member of our staff — from head coaching experience to developing some of the top quarterbacks in the game," K-State head coach Chris Klieman says. "He will be a great addition to our offensive room and system, providing tremendous x's and o's experience as well as a recruiting prowess that mirrors our philosophy of identifying and developing talent."
Matt Wells sat down with K-State Sports Extra's D. Scott Fritchen to discuss his path to K-State:
D. Scott Fritchen: Welcome to K-State. What have the last couple weeks been like for you?
Matt Wells: It's been exciting, busy, crazy. You feel like you're catching up recruiting wise all the while just being so grateful for an opportunity with a head coach that I've known and thoroughly respect. This is a program that has been so, so consistent over the last couple of decades. It's a winning program that is so stable in an instable profession. I know how much respect I have for the culture of this program because I think that's reflected on the football field when you play them. Having played them four out of the last five years at two different schools, I just have so much respect for the program outside looking in, and I'm fortunate to now be in the inside.
It's a program that is one of the toughest "outs" in the country. What I mean by that is they rarely have pre-snap penalties, rarely have post-whistle penalties. They run the ball and stop the run and have really good quarterback play, and they're really, really, really tough to beat. When they do fall short, it's usually the other team beat them — they didn't lose the game. In our profession, that speaks volumes to discipline, commitment and accountability.
Fritchen: Take me back to that initial conversation with Coach Klieman about this coaching opportunity.
Wells: As the end of the season in December progressed for me personally, the thought of what's next for me — I told my wife basically three things: I want to go to work for somebody that I know and respect, I want to go to a consistent winning program that is stable because I don't want to be moving my family around — our youngest son is going to be a sophomore, and I want to give him stability in his high school career — and finally, if I had another choice I'd like to coach some really good players. She looked at me and said, "How many schools are in Division I? 133?" I said, "Yes." She said, "So there are about three or four left now that you have all those expectations." Then about three days later, Chris called for the first time. It's easy for people to see what my priorities and wants or wishes were and how they matched up. I feel so fortunate. This is a God thing, and the Lord has led us here. There is no question in my mind. This is the right place at the right time.
Fritchen: Tell me about your familiarity with Conor Riley?
Wells: I'm very familiar with him from play of the offensive line over the last five years. In our profession, your film is your resume. The play of the K-State offensive line in the last five years is pretty evident around the Big 12 in coaching circles, and he's been the architect of that. I'm very familiar with him in that regard. Personally, I haven't been around him a ton until now, but we have a lot of common ground in offensive football and in organization, and also the steps we think this offense needs to take progressing forward with a new quarterback and a couple new coaches in these roles.
Fritchen: Speaking of quarterback, what are your impressions of Avery Johnson?
Wells: Extremely God-given talent. He's a football junkie. He's passionate and has the desire to put the work in to be great, which I think separates really good players from great players. My responsibility will be to help push him in that way and encourage him and push him and strain him to be great on an everyday basis. Best will be the standard and I mean "best" by being my best today. How do I be my best? And staying out of the comparison game, but daily striving to be your best and then maybe we look up in a few years and he's absolutely "the best." That would be my desire for the starting quarterback, any starting quarterback at Kansas State.
Fritchen: When you go on the road, what are the qualities you look for in a quarterback?
Wells: Leadership, "The Dude," a guy that's going to be able to make 10 guys around him play better. That takes time and relationships and trust hopefully matched by a work ethic that's second-to-none at that position. You have to have the talent to be able to deliver on Friday night or on Saturdays. I look for toughness, a physical toughness, a mental toughness to be able to play the next play and to play each play independently of the last, that's a mental toughness. I look for accuracy over arm strength. The arm has to be good enough and strong enough to make the throws that we need him to make. We need a mobility that is more elusive than anything, which now involves pocket movement and pocket presence, and mobility out on the edge. Obviously, the faster you are the better, but you have to have an element of being elusive and having a presence in the pocket.
Fritchen: In 2012 at Utah State, you set the school record in scoring and total yards. What made that offense so special?
Wells: Well, first of all, let's be real: Players make plays and players win games. We had really good players. I think we had a bunch of guys that were really, really coachable, they were smart, and we were able to do more with them and put more on their plate, and we had really good players. We were very multiple. We played out of 11 personnel, which was primarily what we played out of, but we played in a lot of 12 and a little bit of some 22 and a little bit of 10 and a little bit of 20 with two backs, so we were very multiple. We played with tempo, we slowed it down, we got in big sets running the ball, and we spread people out and played fast, and we had an element of quarterback run game. We were very, very multiple that year.
Fritchen: You've seen the Big 12 through two different lenses in Texas Tech and Oklahoma. How competitive is the Big 12 and how much more competitive might it be given the incoming teams?
Wells: The incoming teams added this year combined with the incoming teams that have been in here one year makes this league as competitive as its ever been top to bottom. That's my most recent opinion for the last five years. I'm not acting like I was in the league 20 years ago. Top to bottom, when you add Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado, every Saturday you have to have your A game.
Fritchen: What do you like best about K-State?
Wells: Right now, the program is what has drawn me here, the head coach, first and foremost, and the consistency and stability in the program, the winning aspect. Lately, the people of Manhattan, and the reception I've felt whenever I do get the chance to leave the building, which isn't often right now, just the commitment here, the commitment of the administration to be great, the people and loyalty, I've felt it. I've been told a lot about it. I've only been here a week, but I've been told a lot about it from a lot of alums, most notably the last guy I worked for (Brent Venables), so I have a great impression of Manhattan and the loyal fan base. Certainly, that's a huge thing for coaches to be able to coach at a place that has as passionate of a fan base as we have.
Fritchen: Tell me about your family.
Wells: I've been married to Jen for almost 24 years, and we have three kids. Jadyn is 21 and a junior at Texas Tech and works in the football office in recruiting and is very involved in her sorority and is crushing school right now. Ella is 18 and graduating from high school this spring and is still in Lubbock. She is doing a great job in school and is a former competitive gymnast who is figuring out where to go for college. Wyatt is our 15-year old, and he's a freshman in high school. He enjoys playing quarterback and playing baseball.
Fritchen: What have you learned most about yourself during your journey?
Wells: I've learned a lot in the last two years. The last two years has provided a tremendous perspective for me to be around Coach Venables and the Oklahoma program to see it through a different lens but as a former head coach in so many ways, programmatic ways to run a program on a daily basis, and yearly basis in terms of discipline, accountability, recruiting, staff, organization, structure, every day. It's been a time for me of really rejuvenation and energy. With the lens and perspective, there's been so much learning for me, learning a different way to do it, and also being confirmed with things that we'd done that I'm seeing done again in the right way. The power of confirmation for all of us is a neat thing.
I've also opened my eyes to a few new ways to do things. I think it's just continuing to learn, to be grounded in more of your core values by reinforcements or confirmation, but also just continuing to learn, whether it's football Xs and Os or programmatically, and never staying still and never being complacent and always climbing and growing and being open-minded with a tremendous amount of humility that there are people that can pour into you and teach you. I welcome all of that.
I think the last two years has been awesome for me. I've also been afforded an opportunity to coach my son's baseball team in the spring and going back and forth from OU that in this profession, so many coaches miss out on being dads. For me, it was a time that I don't take for granted, and I'm very thankful for in knowing that if I was still in the previous position that wouldn't have happened because of the amount of commitment to that position. It was an awesome two years going back and forth to Norman. I'm so thankful to OU and Coach Venables and the whole staff for that opportunity as well as welcoming me with open arms.
But I couldn't be more excited about this opportunity at Kansas State and being back on the grass and getting to coach some elite quarterbacks and helping Coach Klieman and the staff go chase a Big 12 Championship.
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