Every day feels like a party with Texas Tech football.
Texas Tech made it official in naming Zach Kittley the offensive coordinator. We had some confirmation yesterday, but Texas Tech made it official-official. Here’s head coach Joey McGuire on Kittley:
“Zach Kittley represents one of the top, young offensive minds in college football, and we are thrilled to add him to our staff as offensive coordinator,” McGuire said. “In a short amount of time, Zach has built a reputation as an innovative play-caller and effective developer of quarterbacks. We’re excited to welcome him and his family back home to Texas Tech.”
Also official is that McGuire has made it official and named Emmett Jones the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach. McGuire on Jones:
“Emmett Jones is known as one of the top developers of wide receivers in the country,” McGuire said. “Not only that, he will be another prominent member of this staff with significant ties across this great state, namely in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex where his reputation speaks for itself. Needless to say, we are ecstatic to welcome him and his family back to Lubbock.”
If you were wondering if Texas Tech is going to be good at recruiting, you have your answer. I’d also advise that Jones did a tremendous job of recruiting and developing receivers. I’d add one other thing, which is that Joel Filani was a tremendous recruiter and thought that the receivers were some of the best on the team.
The final official announcement is that McGuire has hired Lance Barilow as the head strength and conditioning coach, with prior work in LSU from 2016 to 2019, then Kansas, and then Baylor the past two years.
FootballScoop is also reporting that the offensive line position will be filled by Stephen Hamby, the former Red Raider footballer who was in Bowling Green and then most recently with Kittley in Western Kentucky. Also being reported is that McGuire is considering Riley Dodge and Jason Witten at the tight end position, but not likely to hire either, or Austin Peay co-offensive coordinator Josh Cochran, who is more likely. Cochran played tackle for Texas and has started on that coaching cycle of moving up the ranks.
Current defensive coordinator Keith Patterson was named as the head coach at Abilene Christian. I’m happy for Patterson who I sometimes wonder if he was a good defensive coordinator, but he seems like a genuine human being, the players connected with him, and and maybe that will translate as a head coach (I actually have some thought that it will).