Defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter and defensive pass game coordinator/secondary coach Marcel Yates will not return to Texas Tech, head coach Joey McGuire announced Sunday.
The moves are the biggest yet for McGuire, who until Sunday had only fired one assistant in his three seasons at Texas Tech. DeRuyter and Yates were both charter members of McGuire's staff, and the defensive staff move remained completely intact from McGuire's 2022 hiring until Sunday.
DeRuyter and Yates both spent the 2021 season at Oregon before joining McGuire's staff in Lubbock.
Texas Tech completed an 8-4 regular season with a 52-15 win over West Virginia on Saturday. The Red Raiders finished 15th of 16 in the Big 12 in total defense, yards per play, and scoring, and 16th in passing defense. Texas Tech allowed touchdowns on 65 percent of red zone penetrations, a figure that rated 95th nationally.
Texas Tech is in the process of moving into a new football facility, a $242 million project billed as "one of the largest contiguous football facilities in the country." Thanks to a collection of former players that have hit it big in West Texas's booming oil industry, the program is also well-supported in its NIL efforts.
A bowl win would give Texas Tech its first 9-win campaign since the late Mike Leach's swan song in 2009, and at 6-3 the Red Raiders recorded their best Big 12 campaign since going 7-1 in 2008. However, the defense will clearly have to improve if the program is to play for its first Big 12 championship.
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