A great offensive mind and developer of quarterback talent who has over 25 years of coaching experience, Matt Wells is in his second season at K-State and first as the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach/associate head coach in 2025. Last season, he served as co-offensive coordinator.
Wells hit the ground running in his first season on staff, tutoring Avery Johnson to a school-record 25 touchdown passes, while his sophomore signal caller ranked fifth in school history in passing yards (2,712) and completions (217). Additionally, Johnson was one of only five players in the nation and one of three from Power 4 schools to record at least 2,700 passing yards and 600 rushing yards, while he was one of nine signal callers nationally with at least 25 passing touchdowns and seven rushing touchdowns.
Under the direction of Wells, Johnson guided an offense that finished in the top 15 nationally in four offensive categories, including rushing yards per carry (second; 6.08) and rushing yards per game (11th; 215.5). K-State also ranked in the top 10 in school history in 15 game or season categories. Among those were school record for offensive yards per play (6.57) and rushing yards per carry (6.08), while the Wildcats tied for third in passing touchdowns (25), ranked fourth in offensive yards per game (426.8), fifth in total offense yards (5,549), sixth in rushing yards (2,801), seventh in completions (222) and 10th in both passing yards (2,749) and pass attempts (383).
Wells, who boasts nine years of head coaching experience, came to Manhattan after spending the previous two seasons at Oklahoma as an advisor to the head coach/offensive analyst. Prior to that, he served as the head coach at his alma mater, Utah State, from 2013 through 2018 and at Texas Tech from 2019 to 2021. In addition to coaching quarterbacks during his 27-year coaching career, he has also spent time tutoring wide receivers and tight ends. In total, Wells has been a part of 13 bowl teams and two conference championships.
One of Wells’ success stories tutoring quarterbacks was Jordan Love at Utah State, who accounted for 9,003 yards of total offense in his career – including a 2018 campaign in which he threw for 3,567 yards and 32 touchdowns – before declaring for the NFL Draft following his junior season of 2019. In addition to snapping five single-season school records in 2018, Love also ranked second in school history with 8,600 career passing yards and tied for second with 60 touchdown passes. He went on to be selected 26th overall by the Green Bay Packers in the 2020 NFL Draft, becoming the first Aggie to hear his name called in the first round since 1970.
With the duo of Wells and Love, Utah State went 11-2 in 2018 to match the school record for victories as the Aggies finished with a No. 21 ranking in the Coaches’ poll and a No. 22 mark in the Associated Press Top 25. It marked only the fourth time in school history the Aggies – who climbed as high as No. 13 during the regular season – ended a year ranked in the final AP poll. The No. 13 ranking was Utah State’s highest at any point in a season since the 1961 campaign. Additionally, the school’s only two rankings in the College Football Playoff Top 25 came under Wells in 2018.
Utah State boasted one of the most dynamic offenses in the country in 2018, ranking second by averaging 47.5 points per game. The Aggies, who also ranked among the national leaders for fewest sacks allowed (fourth), total offense (11th), passing efficiency (14th) and passing offense (17th), lit up scoreboards to the tune of 618 points, snapping the Mountain West and Utah State single-season records in the process.
Wells, who was hired as the head coach following two seasons as an assistant, guided Utah State to its best stretch in history as the Aggies won 44 games and played in five bowl games under his guidance. He left the school being the only coach to lead the Aggies to at least three bowl games as well as multiple bowl victories.
Wells, the fourth-longest tenured coach in program history, departed Utah State as the only coach to lead the Aggies to at least three bowl games as well as multiple bowl victories. In fact, Wells was a player (1993), a coordinator (2012) or the head coach (2013-14) for four of Utah State’s first five bowl wins in its history with the lone exception coming at the 2018 Gildan New Mexico Bowl after he had already accepted the job at Texas Tech.
Wells closed his tenure in Logan as the second-winningest coach in program history as his 44 victories trailed only the 128 wins put up by E. Lowell Romney, who coached 29 years from 1919 through 1948. Additionally, Wells compiled a 30-18 record in Mountain West play, trailing only Romney in all-time conference wins among Utah State head coaches.
The Aggies recorded two of their three 10-win campaigns in school history under Wells as Utah State finished 10-4 in only his second season in 2014 and then 11-2 in 2018. Utah State was also 9-5 during Wells’ debut season in 2013, which marked the most wins for a first-year head coach in program history.
Wells was named the Mountain West Coach of the Year in both 2013 and 2018, making him just the fifth Mountain West coach to receive the honor twice in a career to join the likes of Sonny Lubick (Colorado State), Rocky Long (New Mexico), Urban Meyer (Utah) and Gary Patterson (TCU).
A native of Sallisaw, Oklahoma, Wells began his career coaching the quarterbacks, fullbacks and wide receivers at Navy from 1997 through 2001 in addition to serving as the head coach for the Midshipmen junior varsity team. He then spent five seasons back in his home state as he was the tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Tulsa from 2002 to 2006.
Wells spent the 2007, 2008 and 2010 seasons at New Mexico as the wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator. During the 2009 season, he was the passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Louisville.
Wells’ tenure at Utah State began as the quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator in 2011 before being promoted to offensive coordinator a year later. As offensive coordinator, Wells helped Utah State claim the 2012 WAC title, its first outright conference championship since 1936 and just its third in school history. That season, Wells directed an Aggie offense that set single-season school records for total points (454), total offense (6,108), completions (285) and total yards per game (469.8), while ranking second in points per game (34.9) and total passing yards (3,445).
Wells was instrumental in the development of quarterback Chuckie Keeton, who earned First Team All-WAC honors in 2012 after setting single-season school records for touchdown passes (27), passing yards (3,373), completion percentage (67.6%), completions (275) and total offense (3,992). Keeton also earned WAC Offensive Player of the Week honors four times that year, which marked a new single-season school record.
While at Texas Tech, Wells helped four Red Raiders hear their name called in the NFL Draft as he became the first Texas Tech head coach to deliver multiple NFL Draft picks in each of his first two seasons since Jerry Moore over the 1982 and 1983 drafts. It also marked the first time since the 2004 and 2005 seasons where Tech boasted multiple NFL Draft selections in back-to-back years.
Wells, a quarterback for the Aggies from 1994 to 1996, was a member of two conference championship teams, which came as a redshirt freshman in 1993 and as a senior in 1996 when Utah State was a member of the Big West Conference.
The Aggies earned a share of the Big West title each of those two seasons, the first of which garnered Utah State an invite to the 1993 Las Vegas Bowl II. Utah State topped Ball State, 42-33, in that game for its first bowl victory in school history.
Wells earned his bachelor’s degree in business marketing from Utah State in 1996, graduating cum laude. He and his wife, Jen, have two daughters, Jadyn and Ella, and one son, Wyatt.
