Report: Texas State OC Mack Leftwich finalizing three-year deal with Texas Tech for same spot

Texas Tech looked southeast in their state for their reported hire as their next offensive coordinator.

Per ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the Red Raiders will be hiring Texas State OC Mack Leftwich to the same role under Joey McGuire.

“Sources: Texas State OC Mack Leftwich is finalizing a three-year deal to become the next offensive coordinator at Texas Tech,” Thamel tweeted on Thursday morning.

Leftwich had been the offensive coordinator for the Bobcats for the past two seasons under G.J. Kinne. That has all of his stops at the collegiate level, both as a player and coach, being in the state of Texas with him also having previously worked at Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Lehman High School in Kyle and Kirkland High School in El Paso, and then his alma mater at UTEP.

During his two years at Texas State, the Bobcats have averaged 36.9 points per game to finish 11th in scoring offense respectively in both. That has helped them to a record of 15-10 over the last two seasons. The 2023 season saw Leftwich become a nominee for the Broyles Award after posting a record-breaking offense in San Marcos, including a scoring improvement of 15.6 points from ’22 to ’23. The 2024 season has been even slightly better with an average of 37.1 points along with 474.3 yards of offense this fall.

While at Incarnate Word for five seasons, Leftwich was only the offensive coordinator for his one there under Kinne after being a graduate assistant and quarterbacks coach. In that season, the Cardinals posted 51.5 ppg., which led both levels in the FBS and FCS and helped UIW to a record of 12-2 overall.

As the quarterback for UTEP in 2013 and 2015, Leftwich appeared in 11 games as he completed 55.8% of his throws for 1,686 yards, 11 touchdowns, and five interceptions. He then returned there as a student assistant that worked with the offense in 2016.

Leftwich’s hire comes after Florida Atlantic chose Zach Kittley as their next head coach on Monday. He had spent the past three seasons in Lubbock as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach with Texas Tech averaging 33.4 ppg. in that time, including their best of the three this past season at 38.6 ppg. with that being eighth in the nation.

Texas Tech also made a hire this week at defensive coordinator. After firing Tim DeRuyter on Sunday, the Red Raiders then hired Shiel Wood on Tuesday.

Texas Tech has consistently had some of the country’s best offenses over the 2000s. They’ll now look for that to continue with this reported hire of Leftwich.