Reports from the hinterlands are that Texas Tech is set to hire Houston defensive coordinator Shiel Wood. you are probably thinking that Houston wasn’t very good, and you would be correct. the Houston offense was 118th according to Sharp College Football, but were 33rd overall in defense and that’s why we’re here.
Texas Tech is set to hire Houston’s Shiel Wood as its new defensive coordinator, a source tells @CBSSports/@247Sports.
Wood, who @zach_barnett previously reported as a strong candidate for the job, previously was the DC at Tulane and led a top-25 defense last year.… pic.twitter.com/bVsJNQWYgk
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) December 3, 2024
Wood started played at Wofford, playing receiver and stuck around Wofford after he graduated, 2010, and then as a coach until 2017, a decade. Wood then went on to coach safeties at Georgia Tech, then Georgia State, spent a couple of years at Army before going to Troy in 2022, then joining Willie Fritz at Tulane before following him to Houston. I feel that it is important to also mention that Wood gave up coaching for three years from 2013 to 2015 while his wife did her medical residency.
How did Texas Tech and Houston differ on defense? Houston’s defense is the black line and overall, they were much better in certain areas and I’ve written all year that the advanced stats loved Texas Tech’s defense for whatever reason. I thought the pass defense was much worse than the numbers bore out, but they are here. Wood and Houston was much better against the pass than Texas Tech and also had decent advantages in stopping explosive drives, and negative drives. While Texas Tech had advantages in drive efficiency and effective rush.
And if you are curious, Wood was “the” guy mentioned by Chris Level in his podcast with Casey Cowan. On the offensive side of the ball, Level mentioned Louisiana Tech head coach Sonny Cumbie, Baylor offensive coordinator Jake Spavital, North Texas head coach Eric Morris, and Marshall offensive coordinator Seth Doege for the offensive coordinator spot for Texas Tech. Level made it clear that these are guys that have ties to McGuire or have been considered and not an official list (felt it important to give the same disclaimer as Level). I’ll let you all discuss the merits of those possibilities.