This Cam Ward connection proves Texas Tech’s new OC is the real deal

Thursday night, the college and professional football worlds collided in Green Bay, Wisconsin, at the NFL Draft. Though no Texas Tech football player heard his name called in round one, the first overall pick, Cam Ward, is a player with a tie to the Red Raiders.

Though Ward never played in Lubbock, the former Miami Hurricane and Washington State Cougar did begin his career playing at University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. That's because Ward, a native of West Columbia, Texas, was an unranked recruit with few options coming out of high school.

At Incarnate Word in 2020, he passed for 2,260 yards and 24 touchdowns and only 4 picks. Along the way, he completed 60.4% of his passes.

As a sophomore, he broke out with 4,648 yards and 47 touchdowns with 10 interceptions. Then, he made the jump from the FCS level to the PAC-12 with Washington State.

What does that have to do with Texas Tech? Well, the quarterbacks coach who helped recruit Ward to Incarnate Word and who had a huge hand in developing him into an FBS starting QB was Mack Leftwich, who is the new Texas Tech OC.

Texas Tech fans should be impressed with the work Leftwich did with Ward

Long before Ward became a member of the Tennessee Titans on Thursday night, he was a UIW Cardinal who arrived at the FCS level with no fanfare. Still, Leftwich saw something in Ward that made him think greatness was in the young QB's future.

In fact, according to a social media post from the Texas Tech football program, Leftwich was telling people back in 2020 that Ward would be an NFL quarterback someday. That says a ton about Leftwich's ability to evaluate quarterbacks.

While Ward is Leftwich's biggest success story thus far, he isn't the only QB to thrive while playing for the rising offensive coordinator.

In 2023, while serving as offensive coordinator at Texas State, Leftwich guided TJ Finley to a fantastic season. A transfer who spun down to Texas State from Auburn after starting his career at LSU, Finley had the only successful season of his college career while playing for Leftwich, passing for 3,439 yards and 24 TDs with eight picks. That was the only time in five college seasons that Finley threw for more than 827 yards in a season.

Then, in 2024, Texas State QB Jordan McCloud threw for 3,227 yards and 30 TDs with 13 picks for Leftwich. Completing 70.2% of his passes, he set a Texas State single-season program record, breaking the mark of 67.4% that Finley set the season before.

In other words, Texas Tech's offense is being led by a coordinator who not only knows how to evaluate talent, as is evidenced by his ability to see greatness in Ward long before he was a household name in the sport, but who can also coax the most out of the passers he works with. That should give Red Raider fans confidence in the future of the offense as we move into a new era under Leftwich's guidance.