Texas Tech football assistant Zarnell Fitch's contract not renewed
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One of the keys to the Texas Tech football team’s recently completed 12-2 season and first College Football Playoff appearance was a menacing defensive line.
The Red Raiders will be losing more than just players from that unit.
Zarnell Fitch, who’s been the Tech defensive line coach all four years of Joey McGuire’s tenure as head coach, won’t return next season. A Tech athletics spokesman on Wednesday, Feb. 4, said Fitch’s contract expired on Jan. 31 and was not being renewed.
Fitch has been speculated as a candidate to join the staff at Southern California, which hired Gary Patterson as defensive coordinator two weeks ago. Patterson was the TCU head coach from 2000 through 2021, and Fitch was on Patterson’s staff from 2014-21. Fitch also was a two-year letterman for Patterson’s Horned Frogs in 2004 and 2005.
In December, he was named Defensive Line Coach of the Year by FootballScoop.
Texas Tech beat Brigham Young in the Big 12 championship game and ended the season with a 23-0 loss to Oregon at the Orange Bowl, a CFP quarterfinal.
Texas Tech’s 12-win season, its Big 12 title, its CFP appearance, and its Orange Bowl trip were all firsts for the program. Thanks in part to the defensive front, the Red Raiders finished first in the FBS in rushing defense and third in both total defense and scoring defense. They also tied for sixth in sacks and ranked 11th in sacks per game.
Fitch was the position coach for the defensive tackles, a group that included Lee Hunter and A.J. Holmes, both of whom received all-America recognition: Holmes, second team by The Associated Press; Hunter, third team by the AP and second team by the Football Writers Association of America.
Hunter is no longer eligible, and Holmes will be a senior next season.
Tech assistant C.J. Ah You, who coaches the Red Raiders’ edge defenders, also reportedly interviewed in the past week for jobs with the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers. New Cowboys defensive coordinator Christian Parker hired Chidera Uzo-Direbe, who had coached the same position at Georgia since 2022.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football assistant Zarnell Fitch’s contract not renewed
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