As first impressions go, this was a home run hire.

But it takes more than first impressions to win. TU believes Tre Lamb is the guy to get it done.

Lamb, who turned two FCS programs around, is confident he can do that again, this time at Tulsa.

When asked about the toughest thing about turning programs around, the 35-year-old Lamb did not hesitate.

“I think just making hard decisions,” Lamb said. “Kind of cleaning house and starting over a little bit at some positions. If you’re not good enough at some positions, you’ve just got to start over. Coaches got to go. Players got to go.

“In today’s day and age, you can fix that in one year. That’s the hard part, making those hard decisions.”

Even though there will be a lot of changes, Lamb thinks there are good players already at TU, and is meeting with players in the portal to convince them to stay. Some have already decided to get out of the portal.

As for the fate of coaches, former TU interim coach Ryan Switzer is a keeper.

“I’m hiring Ryan,” Lamb said. “We’re definitely hiring him. We are going to keep him in the room (receivers coach). I thought he did a nice job. I really like him. He reminds me a lot of myself five years ago.”

And of the players Switzer was greatly responsible for signing recently, Lamb was impressed.

“I told Switz, I liked their signing class,” Lamb said.

Hiring assistant coaches quickly is a priority for Lamb, although some prospective hires will have to wait due to being in the FBS and FCS playoffs. He plans on bringing a few assistants with him from East Tennessee State – most likely ETSU defensive coordinator Josh Reardon, DL coach Hakim Gray and offensive coordinator Joe Scelfo.

Lamb comes from East Tennessee State after one season where he turned around a team that went 3-8 the two previous seasons, to a 7-5 team. Four losses were by a total of 19 points, and the other loss was to an FBS team, Appalachian State.

The four previous seasons, Lamb was the coach at Gardner-Webb, a private Christian School in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. After inheriting a program that had losing seasons the six previous years, Lamb’s first team went 2-2 in the Covid-shortened year.

After going 4-7 in his second year, Gardner-Webb won its conference the next two seasons, going 7-6 and 7-5, respectively, and finishing 10-1 combined in conference play. Lamb’s team won Gardner-Webb’s first ever FCS playoff game in 2022.

A former successful three-year starting quarterback for Tennessee Tech, in 2011, his record-setting offense led Tennessee Tech to its first conference championship in 36 years despite not being the tallest QB in history.

Lamb's sense of humor drew laughs when he was trying to adjust the microphone right after TU's tall AD Justin Moore had spoken.

"You didn't know you were going to hire a 5-8 coach, did you?” Lamb said.

Moore obviously had high praise for his new hire.

“He’s extremely well-respected by coaches and has references from some of the best coaches in the business,” Moore said. “He has a proven track record as a coach, and has done it at several stops. He won championships. He understands what that takes. He has done it at programs that have not done it before, and to me, that is the mark of a great coach.”

In addition to making hard decisions about who stays and who goes, Lamb knows what it will take to turn things around at TU.

“Talent. We’ve got to go get some talent,” Lamb said. “We’ve got to get 15 mid-year transfers that can come in here and impact immediately. I believe, when you are taking over a program that has lost, how do you get that out of the building where we’ve got to get the losing out? We’ve got to get the losing out before we start winning.

“We’ve got to go get some players. There’s a talent deficiency. You don’t lose games like you’ve been losing without a talent deficiency. So, we’ve got to fix those things first.”

Certain positions that need a talent influx are obvious to Lamb.

“I think the first thing you fix is offensive line, defensive line and quarterback,” Lamb said. “There are a million skill players in the portal from good places. Some guys we played against in our league are getting offered by everybody.

“You can get skill players in this area. We have to get O-Line, D-Line, and quarterback fixed first. If we get those things fixed first, we have a chance to be good immediately.”

For those curious about his offensive philosophy, Lamb will use what works best from a talent standpoint. But what he is shooting for is clear.

“We’re going to cater to our players, for sure,” Lamb said. “I come from an air raid background, played for an air raid coach, and my dad was a high school (head coach) air raid guy. That’s where it stems from, that’s the terminology, but I do want to run the football. I want to spread you out and run the football. We’re going to be intentional about that.

“We’re going to get the ball to our best players. We’re going to play with tempo.”

For Lamb, who will be calling his own plays, whoever is playing quarterback will have talent to work with.

“Our quarterback is very much like a one guard,” Lamb said, using a basketball reference. “Distribute the ball like a point guard. Don’t make mistakes.

“We are putting a high premium on speed. Where we are located, we may not always have the biggest and best offensive line. But we can recruit receivers, running backs, and tight ends that are really at a high level in this area.”

Not expecting fans to wait for a long building process should be music to the ears of Tulsa’s fans. Lamb knows what needs to be done and expects to be successful through using what he has learned.

He talked about his driving factors in success.

“Number one is scheduling, number two is quarterback play, number three, in my opinion, is line of scrimmage,” Lamb said. “You need to taste some success early. In every job I’ve had, early in the year, something good has happened.

“I think sometimes when you’ve been in a place that has been losing, and I talked to our players about that yesterday, they felt like if one or two bad things happen in a game, it was going to get away from them. We’ve got to completely remove that mentality from these guys.”

Although he revealed he had been talking with other schools about their coaching vacancies, Lamb felt he had good reason to choose Tulsa.

“Tulsa has won before. And they’ve done it with guys like me,” Lamb said. “That’s number one. Number two is Justin (Moore) and President Carson. After I sat with them, I felt really good about it. Our leadership is here, and they told me I was going to be given what I needed to get it done, in person, to my face.

“In my third head coaching job, I know how important the president and the AD are. Big deciding factor there. The city, itself, is awesome. The fertile recruiting base is awesome.”

Going back to making hard decisions, Lamb knows that nothing is guaranteed.

“I told the players yesterday, everybody in the room is replaceable, every job is up for grabs, including mine,” Lamb said. “I get fired if I don’t do a good job. That’s the business side of it.”

And in the days of the portal, Lamb knows some are always going to leave. But he expects to keep that number down every year.

“We don’t need to freak out when we lose five to six players per year because of money,” Lamb said. “We will make sure we replace those guys with good players who want to be here and want to get a Tulsa degree.”

With a stated plan of conference championships and bowl games for Tulsa, Lamb’s expectations are high. Which is a big reason for his hiring.

“We interviewed a lot of coaches, and it became very clear that Tre Lamb is the perfect fit for us,” Moore said.