Texas Tech Football Hires OC from Western Michigan
Kevin Johns has joined the Texas Tech football staff as offensive coordinator and inside receivers coach, head coach Kliff Kingsbury announced Tuesday morning.
He comes to Lubbock after spending the last season at Western Michigan. As you can tell from the video above, Johns is an energetic personality and has a positive attitude and demeanor, which is something that is important to the success of a program.
From texastech.com: "We're excited to have Coach Johns join our staff," Kingsbury said. "He has a tremendous record as one of the top offensive minds in college football, and I know he will be a great resource for our staff and players. We'd like to welcome him, his wife Krista and his three sons to Lubbock."
Johns will replace Eric Morris as Offensive Coordinator and inside receivers coach. Morris announced he was leaving Lubbock at the end of December to become head coach at the University of the Incarnate Word.
Johns will also try and improve the lackluster Red Zone offense of the 2017 Red Raiders. In Johns' four seasons as Offensive Coordinator at Indiana and Western Kentucky, his offenses averaged 79 percent Red Zone efficiency, including an 88 percent clip in 2015 at Indiana.
"It's a privilege to join the staff Coach Kingsbury has assembled," Johns said. "Texas Tech has long been known as one of the top offenses in the country, and it's an honor to work alongside Coach Kingsbury in continuing that tradition. I'm fortunate for the opportunity and can't wait to get started."
The Kevin Johns hire also enforces a steady shift that has been happening for Kliff Kingsbury for the past two years as he focuses on providing more balance to the Texas Tech offensive production.
In his lone season at Western Michigan, Johns led a balanced Broncos team that averaged 224 yards on the ground. The strong rushing attack was coupled with an efficient passing attack that helped the Broncos to 33.9 points per game.
As the offensive coordinator at Indiana, Johns consistently provided the Hoosiers with a potent ground attack that coincided with decent production through the air. During the six seasons before his Western Michigan stint, the Hoosiers consistently outperformed expectation and broke 54 school records, including points, total yards, passing yards and rushing yards for a single-season.
Here's an interview from Kevin Johns while he was coaching the Hoosiers in his first season as the primary Offensive Coordinator.
At a school that is never thought of as a powerhouse, Indiana led the Big 10 in passing yards from 2012-2015. Johns was the primary offensive coordinator for the 2014 and 2015 seasons and the quarterbacks coach for the duration. The Hoosiers, keeping with the balanced theme, also ranked 4th in the conference in rushing yards per game during that stretch.
The list of accomplishments at Indiana is rather lengthy, and Johns' resume makes him seem like a perfect fit for Kingsbury's Texas Tech team.
Johns, much like Kingbsury, is a former college quarterback. He spent his playing days at the university of Dayton going 20-1 as a starter before getting his masters and getting into coaching at Northwestern.
Johns' Big 10 mentality will definitely shake up the Red Raider offense -- if he's allowed to really get his fingers into the pie.
If Kliff Kingsbury can continue his rapid maturation then I believe that this out-of-the-box hire will certainly pay dividends for the Red Raiders by providing Kingsbury a sounding board outside the Air Raid system. Kingsbury could have been safe and hired the next "Kliff Kingsbury" (like a Graham Harrell), but he didn't. He left the Leach coaching tree. He left the Big 12. He left the Air Raid.
To me, this is one of the best hires Kliff Kingsbury has made as a head coach and it proves that he's starting to understand how to be a head coach at a high level.
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