Texas Tech’s Underrated Hometown Home Run Hire in OC Zach Kittley
Kittley: It’s a name synonymous with national championship and Texas Tech.
The Red Raiders have a national championship under Coach Kittley.
This is the point where you’re asking me: Didn’t they just hire him?
Exactly. Texas Tech’s new offensive coordinator is the son of Texas Tech Track & Field Coach Wes Kittley. The elder Kittley is a winner. He lead Tech to the 2019 Men’s Outdoor Track & Field Championship. It is the only men’s team NCAA Championship in Texas Tech’s trophy case. Kittley has also scored 9 Big 12 Championships. His athletes have secured 29 NCAA individual championships and 186 Big 12 individual championships. As if that isn’t a stellar enough resume, he’s coached 13 Olympians, eight of whom stood on the medal podium.
Thus, Zach Kittley has a lot to live up to. There will be no sweat for the younger Kittley though, as he already has quite the resume of his own. After graduating from Texas Tech in 2014, Kittley coached Patrick Mahomes, an NFL MVP and Super Bowl Champion, as a graduate assistant on Kliff Kingsbury’s staff, where he worked from 2013 to 2017.
Oh, and he was just named the offensive coordinator of the year by 247Sports. At Western Kentucky, the Hilltoppers jumped from 114th to second nationally in scoring offense (43.1 points per game) and they ranked third or higher after ranking in the triple digits last season in four major offensive categories.
Kittley is the youngest coach to be named 247Sports’ Offensive Coordinator of the Year and his rebuild was largely possible because of the transfer portal as four of his players at FCS Houston Baptist joined him at WKU.
Kittley is no stranger to West Texas. This will certainly help on the recruiting trail, and it seems Tech’s top notch passing offense will be making its return. Joey McGuire seems to be making all the right moves currently.
