Six years ago, when Texas Tech football offensive coordinator Zach Kittley had the same job at Houston Baptist , he was thumbing through resumes to fill a volunteer quality control staff position, an entry-level job that typically goes to a young coach.
It was an unpaid position. Kittley was working his way through a sheaf of about 30 resumes. One jumped out for no reason other than the phone number at the top showed an 806 area code. Kittley joked with fellow coaches Jared Kaster and Tyler Schovanec that he'd found his man.
"I said, 'This guy's probably the one, man,' He's a West Texas guy,'" Kittley said.
After gathering intel, Kittley hired Ben Arbuckle, a former Canadian Wildcats quarterback, then and again a few years later at Western Kentucky. They know each other so well that Arbuckle and his wife Lauren are godparents to the second of the Kittleys' three sons.
On Saturday, the two young coaches will be on opposite sides of the field, Kittley as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach of the Texas Tech football team and Arbuckle in the same role at Washington State.
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There's a line of thinking in sports that some times are better than others to catch certain opponents. This might not be the best time for Texas Tech to catch Washington State. The Red Raiders ' young secondary got cooked this past Saturday night in a 52-51 overtime victory against Abilene Christian.
Also on Saturday, Arbuckle and Washington State hung 70 on Portland State. Cam Ward, last year's prolific passer at Washington State, transferred to Miami and the Cougars just kept on rolling. In their opener, new QB John Mateer threw for 352 yards and five TDs and two receivers each went for more than 100 yards, WSU winning 70-30.
Tech also lit up ACU, but gave nearly as much as it dished out. Maverick McIvor, who never really came close to playing in his three years with the Red Raiders, threatened to crack the Tech record book in his return game. He threw for 506 yards, approaching the Tech opponent single-game record of 545 by Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield, another Tech ex.
McIvor looked swell, and the Red Raiders' pass defense looked discombobulated.
"On the secondary, we've got to communicate a lot better," Tech coach Joey McGuire said Monday. "We've got to do a lot better job of being on the same page. Some of those big plays, we weren't on the same page. There's no excuse for it."
Arbuckle and the WSU staff no doubt saw a place or two to attack. Maybe Portland State was overmatched, and that's all there was to it as far as Mateer's strong debut, but that would be ignoring recent history. Arbuckle also coached Ward last year when Ward finished eighth in the FBS in passing yards, fourth in passing yards per game.
And he was on those HBU and WKU staffs with Kittley when those passing attacks were among the nation's best.
Canadian's one of the most successful Texas high-school programs at any level over the past several years. When Kittley pulled Arbuckle's resume out the stack in 2018, he first called a cousin who'd coached there.
Give me the lowdown on this Ben Arbuckle, he told the cousin.
"He's like, 'You're going to love him.' He said, 'He's super sharp, works hard, great family,'" Kittley said. "So I call Ben and, in trying to do the interview process, he goes, 'Coach, I'll quit my job right now, and I'll be there tomorrow.' "
Long story short, Arbuckle showed up in Houston the next day, and he'll be on the minds of Tech defensive staff every day until Saturday.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football catches familiar coach at bad time | Don Williams
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