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Texas Tech football to hire Texas State's Mack Leftwich as OC | Report
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- Texas Tech football to hire Texas State's Mack Leftwich as OC | Report
(This story was updated to add new information.)
Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire is trying to beat his own timeline to hire an offensive coordinator.
McGuire said Wednesday he wanted to have the position filled by Friday, but it appears he could accomplish the mission Thursday. ESPN national college writer Pete Thamel reported Texas Tech is working on finalizing a three-year deal with Mack Leftwich, the offensive coordinator the past two years at Texas State.
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A Texas Tech athletics spokesman could not immediately confirm the report.
Leftwich turned 30 on Nov. 18. Texas State this season ranks sixth in the FBS in total offense, averaging 474.3 yards per game, and 11th in scoring offense, averaging 37.1 points per game. The Bobcats are 7-5 and 5-3 in the Sun Belt Conference.
A year ago, an 8-5 Texas State team ranked 15th in the FBS in total offense, averaging 457.6 yards per game, and 11th in scoring offense at 36.7 points per game.
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Texas Tech on Friday announced it's hired Mack Leftwich as offensive coordinator. Leftwich, 30, has been the offensive coordinator of potent units at Incarnate Word in 2022 and Texas State in 2023 and 2024.
Tech's offensive coordinator position opened Monday when Florida Atlantic hired Zach Kittley to be its head coach. Kittley had the Red Raiders eighth in the FBS in scoring offense at 38.6 points per game and 10th in total offense at 459.8 yards per game.
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During his national signing day press conference on Wednesday, McGuire said based on the coordinator candidates he had targeted the Red Raiders' offensive approach wouldn't change drastically.
"I wouldn't say 100% it would be coming out of coach (Mike) Leach's tree from the standpoint of air raid," McGuire said, "but it is going to be something like that as far as tempo. ... We want to keep that who we are: tempo and being aggressive."
On Sunday, McGuire dismissed defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter and defensive passing game coordinator and secondary coach Marcel Yates . On Wednesday, he hired defensive coordinator Shiel Wood from Houston .
McGuire said he's working against a self-imposed deadline to have new coordinators in place by Monday when the NCAA transfer portal opens for 20 days. He plans to take 10 to 12 transfers from the portal.
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"That was a big deal this week," McGuire said. "We definitely wanted to have our two coordinators. ... We want to have it where, when that portal opens up, (players) are talking to their OC and DC."
Houston and Utah also reportedly had been interested in Leftwich to fill vacancies on their staffs, according to reports.
Leftwich played quarterback at Texas-El Paso from 2013-15, including a game against the Red Raiders in 2015. Leftwich began his coaching career as a UTEP student assistant in 2016. He's since been on staff at Kyle Lehman High School (2017) and Incarnate Word (2018-22).
Leftwich was an offensive coordinator for the first time with Incarnate Word in 2022, and that team led the FCS in scoring offense (51.5 ppg), team passing efficiency (193.62 rating) and first downs (374). Quarterback Lindsey Scott Jr. won the Walter Payton Award as the most outstanding offensive player in the FCS.
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During his time at Incarnate Word, Leftwich was credited with identifying unheralded quarterback recruit Cam Ward . In two seasons apiece at UIW and Washington State and this season at Miami, Ward has thrown for nearly 18,000 yards and 155 touchdowns.
Leftwich has said he likes to use a lot of formations and motion to challenge defenses.
At a presentation to the Texas High School Coaches Association, he said, "We want something we can window dress: We can motion, we can formation, we can run it 40 different ways in the season, and it's going to look different to the defense almost every time."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football to hire Texas State's Mack Leftwich as OC | Report
