New Florida Atlantic Head Coach Zach Kittley Formally Introduced To Team

Joe Londergan | Dec 3, 2024

Texas Tech's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Zach Kittley high-fives his team during Spring Game, Saturday, April 20, 2024, at the Sports Performance Center. / Annie Rice/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

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Florida Atlantic Owls

Following the firing of Tom Herman, Florida Atlantic football formally announced the hire of new head coach and former Texas Tech offensive coordinator Zach Kittley.

Kittley was formally introduced to the Owls' team in a video posted to fausports.com on Monday. Here's what the first-time head coach had to say in his first day on the job.

"I am fired up to be here. Fired up to be the head football coach here, man. This has been a dream of mine for a really long time."

"What y'all are gonna find about me is I'm gonna love on you guys. We're going to be a family. We're going to have a lot of fun playing a lot of football around here. We will win, and we will win championships."

"A little bit about what we're going to bring to the table...we're going to be explosive on offense, we're going to ply fast, we're going to hit you in the mouth. Defensive side of the ball, we will get after the quarterback. We will create turnovers. That's going to be the MO."

"And last but not least, we will play special teams. Our best football players here will play on special teams. I hope each of you guys sitting in these chairs right now want to play at the next level. I hope that's the case, okay. Because if you're not, you may be in the wrong room. Everybody should have that burning desire to go play in the NFL."

"Like I said, I am fired up to be y'all's football coach and we are about to do some really, really great things here at FAU, going to win a lot of football games and win championships."

Kittley signs with FAU after three seasons as the offensive coordinator for Joey McGuire's staff with the Red Raiders. Prior to that, Kittley honed his skills running the Air Raid at Houston Baptist (now called Houston Christian) for three years and Western Kentucky for one. In that span, Kittley is credited for the development of quarterback Bailey Zappe, who set new single-season FBS records for passing touchdowns and passing yardage in 2021.

The Owls are coming off of a 3-9 season, in which they won only one conference game.

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