Losing Briles is tough, but the right hire can definitely soften the blow. Im six foot seven, so growing up in west Texas I was the tallest guy on the corner all the time and I was a pretty decent basketball player so that was just a path that I felt I needed to take, just to kind of see how it went, Kittley said. Kittley was hired by Western Kentucky after three seasons in a similar role at Houston Baptist where he, similarly, built one of the nations top offenses at the FCS level. The Red Raiders also made a big move by hiring Zach Kittley as offensive coordinator (well get to that) and is rumored to be considering hiring Ewers high school coach. Student Life on the Hill. Should Shough and Colombi decide to move on, the team will be in good hands with the guys already on the roster. Kliff Kingsbury truly took him under his wing and let Zach do a lot to learn that offense.. WKU is doing it all behind a pass-heavy offense that is throwing the ball over 68 percent of the time. He most likely took this iteration of the play from his time learning under Kingsbury. Kittley is the son of Wes Kittley, Texas Techs longtime Director of Track and Field who led the Red Raiders to a national title at the 2019 NCAA Mens Outdoor Championships. It was an emotional deal for me. Like Trickett, Zach Kittley is another one of the top up-and-coming offensive coaches in the country. He followed a year later by leading the Chiefs to a win in Super Bowl LIV, becoming the youngest quarterback in NFL history to be named Super Bowl MVP in the process. A handful of players must have listened to Shealy, as Bailey Zappe, Ben Ratzlaff and brothers Jerreth and Josh Sterns all transferred to the Hill for the 2021 season. zach kittley offense playbook He earned his masters degree in interdisciplinary studies from the university in 2016. Theres a lot of things that those young men were going through in college that I was going through at the same time I was really able to click with those guys on a personal level, which I think was really instrumental for me as a young guy.. The two immediately formed a tight connection and Kittley began to feel right at home on the Hill. He has this little joke that he says. High schools were starting to run spread offenses and Zach just understood where to tell his teammates where to line up. Kittley worked alongside Kingsbury in the development of Patrick Mahomes II as a graduate assistant, tutoring the future NFL MVP into becoming the nations leading passer in 2016 and an eventual top-10 selection by the Kansas City Chiefs. The connections to Arkansas go without saying. Here out of empty Zappe initially checks the snag side, then looks back side and hits the slant return. His two older brothers were good athletes and he was too, but he always seemed to ask me more questions about training or the profession than his brothers. The spot route presents another man beater element to the play with the rub it places on the defender covering the flat route. For example, within two high zone structures, the defense can cheat the mike over to cover the spot. Don Williams WebThe Hilltoppers had 16 big plays, and three of them went for touchdowns. Here Marshall rolls to cover 3, and Zappe ends up throwing an incompletion trying to hit the snag and go up the seam: Special thanks to @_MoveTheChains_ and @CoachT_Robinson for sharing their research with me on WKUs offense. Kittleys offense at Western Kentucky averaged a whopping 44 points per game in 2021. According to 247Sports, Kittleys air raid attack was the third-most explosive offense in college football. 21-ranked rushing offense and 26th-best total offense in terms of production. However, Wake Forest star quarterback Sam Hartman did leave for Notre Dame this off-season. BOWLING GREEN, Ky. WKU Football has announced the hiring of Zach Kittley as the team's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He encouraged those guys to give me a call.. No team in the Big 12 has more to replace on offense than Iowa State. 2005-2023 CBS INTERACTIVE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Sterns, who was also a senior graduate transfer from Houston Baptist, led the nation in receptions (150), TD receptions (17), and receiving yards (1,902). @Davis_Webb5 Now the defense has a numbers advantage to the snag side: This is why the complimentary passing concept placed to the backside is so important-it must take advantage of this overreaction by the defense. This can have the effect of making it an easier read for the quarterback because it puts the flat defender in a more immediate bind. 125 in red zone defense. He earned his masters degree in interdisciplinary studies from the university in 2016. Currently, Texas Tech has a plethora of quarterbacks and offensive weapons. 30 in the country in total offense, No. Led by transfers During the game, Typically this play is designed to defeat split safety coverage, whereby the safety widens to carry the corner from #2, leaving a void in the middle of the field. First reported by @AaronDickens. I just didnt love the game of basketball enough I always loved football, the Xs and Os aspect of it.. I said, well, you need to go over to football and ask Sonny Cumbie [wide receivers coach for Texas Tech] that you want to volunteer to do anything he wants you to do and learn from him. Kittleys unit ranked second nationally, averaging 528.0 yards and 43.1 Western Kentucky University. Kittley nearly tripled point production by the end of his three-year tenure at Houston Baptist and was named a member of 247Sports' 30Under30 in the class of 2020. First reported by @AaronDickens. He runs a similar offensive scheme to Kendall Briles the slow mesh version of the RPO which focuses on tempo and passing slightly more than the traditional RPO scheme. Brenen Thompson will run track and miss spring practice. Erik Ezukanma could return next year to increase his draft stock. The next play-caller will have notable personnel to work with in 2023 and beyond. @KliffKingsbury #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/TxJpjm4l2n. One of the youngest potential candidates is Clint Trickett, the 31-year-old offensive coordinator from Marshall. The Zach Kittley offense spreads the ball, and the offense, around to the point that it is hard for a tight end to collect all-conference numbers. Kittley got to know the gunslinging quarterback when he took on an assistant quarterbacks coach role over his last three years at Texas Tech. Zappe completed 69.2% of his passes for 5,545 yards with 56 touchdowns and 11 interceptions before the bowl game. Hambys praise of WKU seemed to have a strong effect on Kittley. Kittleys contract is reportedly a three-year deal - though this has not been confirmed. The cornerback jumps the shoot, isolating Sterns on the corner route against an outmatched linebacker: Against UTSA they put the back on tear motion, which allows Zappe to identify man coverage when the backer vacates the box to run with him. He couldnt take the risk of going somewhere and not knowing people and maybe not even learning the system, who knows what happens from there., And then the other three guys, I love those guys. Just as it started to look like Sam Pittmans coaching staff was in place for the 2023 season, offensive coordinator Kendal Briles has officially decided to jump ship to TCU. When I left [HBU], there was a little inkling in me thinking that he would leave, he had an SEC offer and a Big 12 offer. Heres a look at seven candidates that could be on Arkansas radar as the next offensive coordinator. Western Kentucky defeated Appalachian State, 59-38, in Saturday's Boca Raton Bowl. Related: Early Big 12 Predictions for 2023 Familiar staples of the system originally made famous by Hal Mumme and Mike Leach were omnipresent in WKUs offense, particularly a heavy dose of 4 verticals and Y stick (although they preferred the Y stick/slot fade variation). Zappe, who During the game, we saw his quarterback Bailey Zappe, who followed him from Houston Baptist, set not one but two FBS single-season records. Zappe became the highest-drafted quarterback in Western Kentucky following a record-setting final collegiate season where he snapped the NCAA FBS records for single-season passing yards (5,967) and passing touchdowns (62). Considering the potential return of offensive playmakers Spencer Rattler, Jaheim Bell and Antwane Wells among others for a program inside the top 25, Beamer is expected to swing for the fences with this search for a new play-caller. WKU (8-5) is scheduled to play the Appalachian State Mountaineers in the Boca Raton Bowl on Saturday, December 18 at 10 A.M. CT inside FAU Stadium. Kittley accepted the position at Houston Baptist and set to work revitalizing the Huskies offense. Today, he was named 247Sports' Offensive Coordinator of the Year. I personally got to recruit those three so I developed a relationship with them and their families, and I just felt that the relationship that we had was something that was very important in their decision making.. 2018-20 Houston Baptist Offensive Coordinator (Quarterbacks) We like to say that everybody in this offense eats. Mahomes closed his Red Raider career ranked third all-time in passing yards (11,252), touchdown passes (93), attempts (1,349) and completions (857) despite foregoing his senior season to enter the NFL Draft. J.T. The gamble paid off. His wide zone philosophy is one that has worked at many levels of football and is designed to help teams have success at the line of scrimmage despite being undersized compared to their opponent. The read for the quarterback is simple-throw off of the cornerbacks movement and make him wrong. The Red Raiders, who averaged more than 30 points per game in each of those three seasons, were also second nationally in total offense and scoring offense in 2015. Without him out there, people didnt know where to line up. Stick is a short, ball control passing concept that places a horizontal stretch on the flat defender: Against a split coverage team, Mumme and Leach would ensure that stick was a prominent part of the game plan. I started doing my research, coach [Vic] Shealy was awesome to me and called me down for an interview me and my wife, we prayed about it, and we felt like it was the right move for us at the time I would never ever take back my time and that decision that I made., WKU student files lawsuit claiming assault, emotional distress and negligence against university, CVS Pharmacy near campus to permanently close next month, SGA Judicial Council unanimously votes against censure of President Bornefeld regarding use of social media, UPDATED: WKU experiences power outages across campus, Top of the Week: Student sustainability, and Cabonis Faculty Senate attendance, WKUs Folk Studies Program, voting guide, and gerrymandering: Top of the Week, 'Find the thing that delights you the most and then not be scared to fail: U.S. WebHe plays left guard next to Paul, forming one of the most formidable tackle-guard combos in college football, especially at the G5 level. WKU offensive coordinator Zach Kittley is returning to Lubbock, Texas, to become the next offensive coordinator for the Texas Tech Red Raiders. A native of Lubbock, Kittley originally attended Abilene Christian to play basketball before transferring back to Texas Tech to complete his bachelors in history in 2014. USF recently fired head coach Jeff Scott, which means his top-end assistants are being courted by other programs as we speak. Tyler Shough is back from injury and is a perfect scheme fit for Kittleys air raid offense. 9 in the conference in 2021. The success of the offense helped Kittley land the offensive coordinator role at Texas Tech under new head coach Joey McGuire. Please. This move is likely not happening after Loggains took the job as South Carolinas offensive coordinator in December. "Zach Kittley represents one of the top, young offensive minds in college football, and The Mountaineers do have many question marks personnel-wise, but Harrells offense will be exciting nonetheless. It took Mahomes only two seasons from there to garner NFL MVP honors as he was named the leagues top player in his first year as Kansas Citys starter in 2018. He stayed helping Sonny the first year and then Sonny left to take the TCU offensive coordinator job and [Texas Tech head coach] Kliff Kingsbury called me and told me how valuable Zach was to them and [that] he was going to take him as his GA and help with the quarterbacks. Academic Majors. I was a young guy at the time, I was a student coach, so I was still 21-22 years old at that time, Kittley said. 2015-17 Texas Tech Graduate Assistant (Assistant Quarterbacks) Have confirmed that Zach Kittley has agreed to return to Texas Tech as offensive coordinator. Below are 3 different variations of the snag concept from the Cardinals 2019 playbook: In the clip below, Western Kentucky runs snag in the red zone on a critical 4th down. The 2018 season would prove rough for the team, as HBU went 1-10 without a conference victory. Behind the arm of Zappe, Kittley transformed the Western Kentucky into one of the nations most explosive offenses, averaging an impressive 44.2 points per game and 535.3 yards of total offense. Running Backs should be heavily involved as well. @JoeyMcGuireTTU ?? Don Williams of the Lubbock-Avalanche Journal and RedRaiderSports.com first broke the news around 10:15 p.m. on Sunday indicating that sources confirmed Kittley was hired by Texas Tech after interviewing for the job earlier in the day. HBU played just four games and ended the year with a 1-3 record, but more important than what was in the win-loss column were the eye-popping offensive numbers put up by the Huskies receiving corps and quarterback Bailey Zappe. 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