Sonny Cumbie has had many roles as a Red Raider. His newest is offensive coordinator for Matt Wells.

“When we set out on this search last week, we wanted to hire one of the top offensive coaches in the country, and we found that in Coach Cumbie,” Wells said via texastech.com. “He’s known as one of the top quarterback developers in the country and will have an immediate impact on our offense. We’re pleased to welcome Coach Cumbie, his wife Tamra and their boys back to Texas Tech.”

“I am extremely excited to be head back to Lubbock and Texas Tech,” Cumbie said in the same statement. “I’m looking forward to working with Coach Wells, the staff at Texas Tech and the players there. Guns Up!”

To begin his Red Raider career, Cumbie walked on back in 2000 before earning a scholarship as a backup quarterback for then-starter Kliff Kingsbury. He then backed up BJ Symons in 2003 before earning the starting job in 2004. As the starter, Cumbie threw for more than 4,700 yards and had 32 touchdowns to 18 interceptions.

With Cumbie running the offense, Texas Tech went 8-4 with a 5-3 record in conference play and beat an Aaron Rodgers-led Cal team in the Holiday Bowl, torching the Golden Bears for 520 yards and three touchdowns. One of his touchdowns was a 63-yard bomb to current receivers coach Joel Filani.

After playing for Texas Tech, Cumbie played professionally in both the NFL and Arena league before getting into coaching. He returned to Texas Tech in 2009 as a grad assistant before being promoted to inside receivers coach under Tommy Tuberville. When Kingsbury was hired as the head coach, Cumbie was promoted to co-OC, but only stayed one season before heading to Texas Christian.

At TCU, Cumbie's success has been up and down. The Horned Frogs run a program built on defense first and the offense is designed to do just enough. Even when Cumbie was promoted to play-caller in 2017, head coach Gary Patterson never trusted him to be a stand-alone OC with Curtis Luper serving as Co-OC from 2017-2019.

In 2020, Cumbie was finally listed as the solo offensive coordinator, but Gary Patterson brought in Doug Meacham, a previous TCU OC, and Jerry Kill, a special offensive assistant, who both had their hands in Cumbie's offensive business.

For 2021, it will be interesting to see what offense Cumbie employs when he finally has the keys to the offense. That is, if Matt Wells can stay out of his business and let him run what he wants to run.

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