Texas Tech University Athletics
Football
Mack Leftwich
- Title:
- Offensive Coordinator / Quarterbacks
Mack Leftwich enters this second season at Texas Tech’s offensive coordinator and quarterback backs coach after a successful debut where he oversaw one of the nation’s most-balanced offenses to push the Red Raiders to a Big 12 Conference title and College Football Playoff appearance.
The Red Raiders delivered on his promise to be near a 50-50 split offensively as Texas Tech threw for 3,500 yards and rushed for 2,500 yards for the first time program history. It paved the way for one of the most-dominant seasons in recent college football history with the Red Raiders winning each of their school record 12 wins by at least 20 points. Combined with one of the nation’s top defenses, the Red Raiders cruised to their first Big 12 title in history and the College Football Playoff.
Texas Tech became only the fifth team in the Associated Press era (since 1936) to record 12 or more wins by 20-plus points in a season, joining the likes of Nebraska (1971), Florida State (2013), Alabama (2018) and Clemson (2018). Of that group, only the Red Raiders and Alabama recorded their 12th win by at least 20 points prior to the bowl game. Texas Tech’s eight Big 12 wins by at least 20 points set a new league record and marked only the sixth time in FBS history a team had won eight or more conference games by that margin.
Texas Tech averaged 39.4 points per game during Leftwich’s debut season, its most since Patrick Mahomes II’s final year leading the Red Raider offense in 2016. The Red Raiders ranked seventh in the FBS for scoring offense and 10th for total offense after averaging 461.4 yards per game backed by an explosive attack that featured 93 plays of 20-plus yards, the third-highest total in the country. Texas Tech was one of only six schools nationally with at least 3,500 passing yards and 2,500 rushing yards and the lone one to do so from the Big 12 Conference.
That balance paved the way for the Red Raiders to boast multiple 800-yard rushers for the first time in school history in sophomores Cameron Dickey and J’Koby Williams. The Red Raiders totaled 2,560 rushing yards on the season, their most since joining the Big 12 Conference in 1996, with Dickey finishing with 1,124 yards of total total. Dickey became only the 14th different Red Raider to post 1,000 yards on the ground as he led the Big 12 with 14 rushing touchdowns and 16 total touchdowns. Williams, meanwhile, ended the season ranked 12th in the FBS with 1,525 all-purpose yards as he and Dickey were the only power conference duo with at least 1,300 all-purpose yards.
Behren Morton, meanwhile, flourished under Leftwich, who has quickly become known as one of the top quarterback developers in the country. Morton, despite battling injuries for most of the season, concluded his illustrious career with a strong final season under Leftwich, becoming only the second Red Raider in program history to start at least 10 games and throw for 2,500 yards with eight or fewer interceptions. Morton led the Big 12 with a 66.0 completion percentage and was one of only 11 FBS quarterbacks to throw for at least 2,500 yards and 20 touchdowns with six or fewer interceptions.
The strong final chapter to Morton’s career enabled him to rank fourth all-time in Texas Tech history for carer passing yards, career touchdown passes, career passing attempts, career touchdowns responsible for and career total yards of offense. Most importantly, Morton ended his career backed by 26 wins as a starting quarterback, the second-highest total for a Red Raider since 1995 behind only Graham Harrell.
Morton was selected in the seventh round of this spring’s NFL Draft by the New England Patriots, becoming the second former Leftwich pupil to hear his name called in recent years. Leftwich previously identified and developed Cameron Ward while at Incarnate Ward before he eventually became the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft after finishing his career at Miami.
Leftwich, one of the top young play-callers in college football, arrived at Texas Tech following two seasons at Texas State where he developed one of the nation's top offenses as the Bobcats led the Sun Belt Conference and ranked in the top 15 nationally for total offense and scoring during both the 2023-24 campaigns. Texas State's success offensively pushed the Bobcats to their first two bowl appearances in school history and 16 combined victories, a significant improvement for a program that had not won more than four games since 2014.
Leftwich inherited a Texas State offense that ranked 110th in the country for scoring at only 21.1 points per game prior to his arrival in 2022. He quickly changed that narrative, though, as Texas State used a balanced attack to average 36.7 points per game in 2023 and then 36.5 points in 2024, easily its highest two single-season averages since the Bobcats joined the FBS level in 2012. The Bobcats led the Sun Belt in scoring average in each of his two seasons, finishing seventh in the FBS in 2023 and then 11th in 2024.
The son of an offensive line coach, Leftwich’s offenses burned opponents both through the air and on the ground as Texas State ranked in the top 30 of the FBS rankings for both passing and rushing yards per game both seasons. The Bobcats led the Sun Belt in total offense per game each season, ranking as high as fifth in the FBS in 2024 after Texas State averaged 476.9 yards per game en route to setting the school record with 6,200 yards of total offense. Texas State previously ranked 15th nationally in total offense in 2023, averaging 457.6 yards per game, up from the 325.1 yards a contest and the No. 112 national ranking the Bobcats posted the year prior to his arrival.
Texas State also set the school records for passing yards (3,522) and completion percentage (66.9) in 2023 behind quarterback TJ Finley, who became the Bobcats’ all-time single-season leader for completion percentage (67.4), passing yards (3,449) and completions (279). The Bobcats snapped the school record again a year later with a 69.7 completion percentage thanks to Jordan McCloud, who ranked seventh in the FBS for completion percentage (70.2) as well as eighth in passing touchdowns (30), ninth in passing efficiency (158.6) and 19th for total passing yards (3,227). He also broke Finley’s previous school record for completion percentage after converting 70.0 of his passes for 3,227 yards and a school record 30 touchdowns.
It wasn’t only the quarterbacks who excelled under Leftwich as running back Ismail Mahdi led the FBS with 2,169 all-purpose yards in 2023. Mahdi, who also excelled in the passing game and as a kick returner, rushed for 1,331 yards and 10 touchdowns that season, which marked the most rushing yards in a season by a Bobcat since Claude Mathis in 1997. His 2,169 all-purpose yards ranked third all-time in Texas State history and were the most by any Bobcat since joining the FBS level in 2012.
Behind Mahdi, Texas State finished with its second-highest rushing total as an FBS program at the time with 2,427 yards on the ground as a team. Mahdi followed with 991 rushing yards in 2024 as Texas State improved its rushing totals, finishing with 2,707 yards on the ground to rank 15th in the FBS and second in the Sun Belt.
Leftwich, a two-time Broyles Award nominee by the age of 30, joined the Texas State staff following five seasons at Incarnate Word. Leftwich was the Cardinals' offensive coordinator during his final season in San Antonio as he helped lead UIW to a Southland Conference title and the semifinal round of the FCS playoffs as the No. 7 national seed. It marked the furthest the Cardinals had advanced in the FCS playoffs in program history.
IUW led both the FBS and FCS levels with 51.1 points per game that season, which marked the second-highest average in NCAA FCS history. The Cardinal offense scored 50 or more points in seven different games in 2022 en route to also setting the Southland Conference record for total points in a season. It was quite the debut as a play-caller for Leftwich, whose offenses averaged 41.8 points per game between his time at both UIW and Texas State.
Leftwich previously began his tenure at UIW in 2018 as a graduate assistant under former head coach Eric Morris and was promoted to quarterbacks coach in 2019. He was part of the UIW coaching staff for three of its Southland Conference titles in 2018, 2021 and 2022.
Leftwich coached the quarterback position in each of his five seasons, helping identify three of the best signal callers in program history in Jon Copeland (2018-19), Cameron Ward (2020-21) and Lindsey Scott Jr. (2022). The trio all sit atop the UIW single-season records for both passing yards and passing touchdowns.
Ward combined for 6,908 passing yards and 71 touchdowns during his two seasons at UIW, which remain the most in school history. He was tabbed a Freshman All-American by HERO Sports following the COVID-shortened 2020 season and then a second team FCS All-American by STATS in 2021. Ward also earned the Jerry Rice Award for the spring 2021 season, which is presented annually to the top FCS freshman in the country.
Ward set the UIW single-season records with 4,648 passing yards and 47 touchdowns in 2021 en route to leading the Cardinals to their first 10-win season in program history. Both marks were snapped a year later by Scott Jr., who threw for 4,657 yards and 60 touchdowns while also totaling more than 5,300 yards of total offense in his only season with the Cardinals. Scott also had the highest passing efficiency (197.4) and completion percentage (70.9) in program history as he threw 60 touchdown passes to only eight interceptions.
Scott Jr., who also rushed for 712 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground, was honored following the season with the prestigious Walter Payton Award, which recognizes the Offensive Player of the Year at the FCS level. He was also tabbed the Southland Conference Player of the Year, becoming the first player in school history to earn the honor.
Like many others on McGuire's staff, Leftwich has experience at the high school level as he was the offensive coordinator at Lehman High School in Katy prior to his hire at UIW. He began his coaching career as a student assistant at UTEP in 2016 where he worked directly with the offensive coordinator, serving in a quality control role and as the main on-field communicator with the quarterbacks on gameday.
Leftwich joined the UTEP staff following the end of his own playing career as a quarterback for the Miners from 2013-15. He was selected to the team's leadership council and was a three-time C-USA Academic Honor Roll selection. Leftwich graduated from UTEP in 2017 with a bachelor's of multidisciplinary studies with a focus in mathematics and education.
Leftwich and his wife, Courtney, are parents to a daughter, Lennie Marie, and a son, Hays. He is the son of longtime college football coach, Spencer Leftwich, who made stops at the likes of Arizona, Pittsburgh, UTEP and North Texas during his career. Leftwich's brother, Cutter, is also in the coaching profession as the offensive line coach at Kentucky.
MACK LEFTWICH COACHING HISTORY
2025-present – Texas Tech Offensive Coordinator (Quarterbacks)
2023-24 – Texas State Offensive Coordinator (Quarterbacks)
2023-24 – Texas State Offensive Coordinator
2022 – Incarnate Word Offensive Coordinator (Quarterbacks)
2019-21 – Incarnate Word Assistant Coach (Quarterbacks)
2018 – Incarnate Word Graduate Assistant
2017 – Lehman High School (Texas) Offensive Coordinator
2016 – UTEP Student Assistant Coach
2016 – Kirkland High School Offensive Coordinator (Quarterbacks)
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS (1): 2025 Big 12 Conference (Texas Tech).
BOWL GAMES AS A COACH (3): 2025 Capital One Orange Bowl (Texas Tech); 2024 First Responder Bowl (Texas State); 2023 First Responder Bowl (Texas State).
QUARTERBACK IN THE NFL DRAFT (2): Cameron Ward - No. 1 pick of 2025 NFL Draft (Tennessee Titans); Behren Morton - Seventh Round of 2026 NFL Draft (New England Patriots).
The Red Raiders delivered on his promise to be near a 50-50 split offensively as Texas Tech threw for 3,500 yards and rushed for 2,500 yards for the first time program history. It paved the way for one of the most-dominant seasons in recent college football history with the Red Raiders winning each of their school record 12 wins by at least 20 points. Combined with one of the nation’s top defenses, the Red Raiders cruised to their first Big 12 title in history and the College Football Playoff.
Texas Tech became only the fifth team in the Associated Press era (since 1936) to record 12 or more wins by 20-plus points in a season, joining the likes of Nebraska (1971), Florida State (2013), Alabama (2018) and Clemson (2018). Of that group, only the Red Raiders and Alabama recorded their 12th win by at least 20 points prior to the bowl game. Texas Tech’s eight Big 12 wins by at least 20 points set a new league record and marked only the sixth time in FBS history a team had won eight or more conference games by that margin.
Texas Tech averaged 39.4 points per game during Leftwich’s debut season, its most since Patrick Mahomes II’s final year leading the Red Raider offense in 2016. The Red Raiders ranked seventh in the FBS for scoring offense and 10th for total offense after averaging 461.4 yards per game backed by an explosive attack that featured 93 plays of 20-plus yards, the third-highest total in the country. Texas Tech was one of only six schools nationally with at least 3,500 passing yards and 2,500 rushing yards and the lone one to do so from the Big 12 Conference.
That balance paved the way for the Red Raiders to boast multiple 800-yard rushers for the first time in school history in sophomores Cameron Dickey and J’Koby Williams. The Red Raiders totaled 2,560 rushing yards on the season, their most since joining the Big 12 Conference in 1996, with Dickey finishing with 1,124 yards of total total. Dickey became only the 14th different Red Raider to post 1,000 yards on the ground as he led the Big 12 with 14 rushing touchdowns and 16 total touchdowns. Williams, meanwhile, ended the season ranked 12th in the FBS with 1,525 all-purpose yards as he and Dickey were the only power conference duo with at least 1,300 all-purpose yards.
Behren Morton, meanwhile, flourished under Leftwich, who has quickly become known as one of the top quarterback developers in the country. Morton, despite battling injuries for most of the season, concluded his illustrious career with a strong final season under Leftwich, becoming only the second Red Raider in program history to start at least 10 games and throw for 2,500 yards with eight or fewer interceptions. Morton led the Big 12 with a 66.0 completion percentage and was one of only 11 FBS quarterbacks to throw for at least 2,500 yards and 20 touchdowns with six or fewer interceptions.
The strong final chapter to Morton’s career enabled him to rank fourth all-time in Texas Tech history for carer passing yards, career touchdown passes, career passing attempts, career touchdowns responsible for and career total yards of offense. Most importantly, Morton ended his career backed by 26 wins as a starting quarterback, the second-highest total for a Red Raider since 1995 behind only Graham Harrell.
Morton was selected in the seventh round of this spring’s NFL Draft by the New England Patriots, becoming the second former Leftwich pupil to hear his name called in recent years. Leftwich previously identified and developed Cameron Ward while at Incarnate Ward before he eventually became the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft after finishing his career at Miami.
Leftwich, one of the top young play-callers in college football, arrived at Texas Tech following two seasons at Texas State where he developed one of the nation's top offenses as the Bobcats led the Sun Belt Conference and ranked in the top 15 nationally for total offense and scoring during both the 2023-24 campaigns. Texas State's success offensively pushed the Bobcats to their first two bowl appearances in school history and 16 combined victories, a significant improvement for a program that had not won more than four games since 2014.
Leftwich inherited a Texas State offense that ranked 110th in the country for scoring at only 21.1 points per game prior to his arrival in 2022. He quickly changed that narrative, though, as Texas State used a balanced attack to average 36.7 points per game in 2023 and then 36.5 points in 2024, easily its highest two single-season averages since the Bobcats joined the FBS level in 2012. The Bobcats led the Sun Belt in scoring average in each of his two seasons, finishing seventh in the FBS in 2023 and then 11th in 2024.
The son of an offensive line coach, Leftwich’s offenses burned opponents both through the air and on the ground as Texas State ranked in the top 30 of the FBS rankings for both passing and rushing yards per game both seasons. The Bobcats led the Sun Belt in total offense per game each season, ranking as high as fifth in the FBS in 2024 after Texas State averaged 476.9 yards per game en route to setting the school record with 6,200 yards of total offense. Texas State previously ranked 15th nationally in total offense in 2023, averaging 457.6 yards per game, up from the 325.1 yards a contest and the No. 112 national ranking the Bobcats posted the year prior to his arrival.
Texas State also set the school records for passing yards (3,522) and completion percentage (66.9) in 2023 behind quarterback TJ Finley, who became the Bobcats’ all-time single-season leader for completion percentage (67.4), passing yards (3,449) and completions (279). The Bobcats snapped the school record again a year later with a 69.7 completion percentage thanks to Jordan McCloud, who ranked seventh in the FBS for completion percentage (70.2) as well as eighth in passing touchdowns (30), ninth in passing efficiency (158.6) and 19th for total passing yards (3,227). He also broke Finley’s previous school record for completion percentage after converting 70.0 of his passes for 3,227 yards and a school record 30 touchdowns.
It wasn’t only the quarterbacks who excelled under Leftwich as running back Ismail Mahdi led the FBS with 2,169 all-purpose yards in 2023. Mahdi, who also excelled in the passing game and as a kick returner, rushed for 1,331 yards and 10 touchdowns that season, which marked the most rushing yards in a season by a Bobcat since Claude Mathis in 1997. His 2,169 all-purpose yards ranked third all-time in Texas State history and were the most by any Bobcat since joining the FBS level in 2012.
Behind Mahdi, Texas State finished with its second-highest rushing total as an FBS program at the time with 2,427 yards on the ground as a team. Mahdi followed with 991 rushing yards in 2024 as Texas State improved its rushing totals, finishing with 2,707 yards on the ground to rank 15th in the FBS and second in the Sun Belt.
Leftwich, a two-time Broyles Award nominee by the age of 30, joined the Texas State staff following five seasons at Incarnate Word. Leftwich was the Cardinals' offensive coordinator during his final season in San Antonio as he helped lead UIW to a Southland Conference title and the semifinal round of the FCS playoffs as the No. 7 national seed. It marked the furthest the Cardinals had advanced in the FCS playoffs in program history.
IUW led both the FBS and FCS levels with 51.1 points per game that season, which marked the second-highest average in NCAA FCS history. The Cardinal offense scored 50 or more points in seven different games in 2022 en route to also setting the Southland Conference record for total points in a season. It was quite the debut as a play-caller for Leftwich, whose offenses averaged 41.8 points per game between his time at both UIW and Texas State.
Leftwich previously began his tenure at UIW in 2018 as a graduate assistant under former head coach Eric Morris and was promoted to quarterbacks coach in 2019. He was part of the UIW coaching staff for three of its Southland Conference titles in 2018, 2021 and 2022.
Leftwich coached the quarterback position in each of his five seasons, helping identify three of the best signal callers in program history in Jon Copeland (2018-19), Cameron Ward (2020-21) and Lindsey Scott Jr. (2022). The trio all sit atop the UIW single-season records for both passing yards and passing touchdowns.
Ward combined for 6,908 passing yards and 71 touchdowns during his two seasons at UIW, which remain the most in school history. He was tabbed a Freshman All-American by HERO Sports following the COVID-shortened 2020 season and then a second team FCS All-American by STATS in 2021. Ward also earned the Jerry Rice Award for the spring 2021 season, which is presented annually to the top FCS freshman in the country.
Ward set the UIW single-season records with 4,648 passing yards and 47 touchdowns in 2021 en route to leading the Cardinals to their first 10-win season in program history. Both marks were snapped a year later by Scott Jr., who threw for 4,657 yards and 60 touchdowns while also totaling more than 5,300 yards of total offense in his only season with the Cardinals. Scott also had the highest passing efficiency (197.4) and completion percentage (70.9) in program history as he threw 60 touchdown passes to only eight interceptions.
Scott Jr., who also rushed for 712 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground, was honored following the season with the prestigious Walter Payton Award, which recognizes the Offensive Player of the Year at the FCS level. He was also tabbed the Southland Conference Player of the Year, becoming the first player in school history to earn the honor.
Like many others on McGuire's staff, Leftwich has experience at the high school level as he was the offensive coordinator at Lehman High School in Katy prior to his hire at UIW. He began his coaching career as a student assistant at UTEP in 2016 where he worked directly with the offensive coordinator, serving in a quality control role and as the main on-field communicator with the quarterbacks on gameday.
Leftwich joined the UTEP staff following the end of his own playing career as a quarterback for the Miners from 2013-15. He was selected to the team's leadership council and was a three-time C-USA Academic Honor Roll selection. Leftwich graduated from UTEP in 2017 with a bachelor's of multidisciplinary studies with a focus in mathematics and education.
Leftwich and his wife, Courtney, are parents to a daughter, Lennie Marie, and a son, Hays. He is the son of longtime college football coach, Spencer Leftwich, who made stops at the likes of Arizona, Pittsburgh, UTEP and North Texas during his career. Leftwich's brother, Cutter, is also in the coaching profession as the offensive line coach at Kentucky.
MACK LEFTWICH COACHING HISTORY
2025-present – Texas Tech Offensive Coordinator (Quarterbacks)
2023-24 – Texas State Offensive Coordinator (Quarterbacks)
2023-24 – Texas State Offensive Coordinator
2022 – Incarnate Word Offensive Coordinator (Quarterbacks)
2019-21 – Incarnate Word Assistant Coach (Quarterbacks)
2018 – Incarnate Word Graduate Assistant
2017 – Lehman High School (Texas) Offensive Coordinator
2016 – UTEP Student Assistant Coach
2016 – Kirkland High School Offensive Coordinator (Quarterbacks)
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS (1): 2025 Big 12 Conference (Texas Tech).
BOWL GAMES AS A COACH (3): 2025 Capital One Orange Bowl (Texas Tech); 2024 First Responder Bowl (Texas State); 2023 First Responder Bowl (Texas State).
QUARTERBACK IN THE NFL DRAFT (2): Cameron Ward - No. 1 pick of 2025 NFL Draft (Tennessee Titans); Behren Morton - Seventh Round of 2026 NFL Draft (New England Patriots).
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Friday, July 17
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Tuesday, July 07
