Graham Harrell returned to Texas Tech on Sunday, but not to work. The former Red Raider gunslinger was honored at a Tech basketball game for his induction to the 2025 College Football Hall of Fame exploits as a player.
After a brief NFL career, Harrell followed his father's footsteps into coaching, where he's now taken his fifth offensive coordinator role in a decade. On Tuesday, Abilene Christian formally announced Harrell as its new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach.
Harrell's father and brother played at ACU, and his mother attended the school as well.
"With his parents and brother having graduated from ACU, Graham understands the university, which makes it a great fit," Patterson said upon announcing the hire on Tuesday. "He's on the Mount Rushmore of Texas Tech football. When the news that we had hired him leaked out last week, I got phone calls from a wide range of people, from Lubbock and Oklahoma to high school and college coaches, who were excited about him being here. That gave me a small peek into this great opportunity for our program and university."
The first and arguably the best of the Air Raid quarterbacks, Harrell entered coaching full-time as the outside receivers coach at Washington State in 2014 under the late Mike Leach. Two years there led him to North Texas where, upon inheriting a 1-11 team in the pre-portal era, Harrell and Seth Littrell had the Mean Green averaging 35 points a game and in the Conference USA Championship by their second year on campus.
When Kliff Kingsbury, fired by Texas Tech, leapt from the USC offensive coordinator job to the Arizona Cardinals head coaching position in January of 2019, Harrell slid in as his replacement in Los Angeles.
Harrell spent three seasons as USC's offensive coordinator before the staff was changed over after Clay Helton's mid-season firing. Harrell then spent 2022 at West Virginia and 2023-24 at Purdue.
Harrell inherits an ACU offense that was among the FCS's best in 2024. The Wildcats began their season with a 52-51 overtime loss at Texas Tech, then went on to post a 9-5 record while averaging 496.6 yards, 304.2 passing yards, and 33.8 points per game. Rick Bowie took the offensive coordinator job at Western Kentucky and brought quarterback Maverick McIvor with him.
"I understand we've lost a lot of productive guys from last year's offense, but we have some coming back as well," Harrell said. "We have to figure out what we have and what we do best. No matter the situation – whether you have a lot of guys back or just a few – it's always important to figure out the style that fits your personnel. You might not look the same from year to year in football because you lose kids, and you have to find out what the new group does well. And that will be our No. 1 priority in the offseason."
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