REPORT: For Texas Tech football, Stephen Hamby’s departure as OL was a necessary adjustment.

The offensive line of Texas Tech was by far this program’s greatest weakness, as everyone who watched football over the last two seasons could see. Thus, it was appropriate, if not joyful, to learn of offensive line coach Stephen Hamby’s resignation, as reported by several sources on Monday, including Don Williams of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

After the 2021 season, Hamby returned to his alma mater in the offseason to become a member of Joey McGuire’s first coaching staff. Before that, he worked as an assistant coach at Bowling Green (2016–18) and Western Kentucky (2018–2021) in addition to serving as a graduate assistant with the Red Raiders (2013–15).

In 2021, he served as the offensive line coach for the Hilltoppers under Zach Kittley, the offensive coordinator at Texas Tech at the time. After that, he went with Kittley to Tech to work as McGuire’s coach.

But the offensive line play hasn’t produced the desired results for the Red Raiders, particularly in pass protection. With 3.5 sacks allowed per game in 2022, Tech was last in the Big 12 and ranked 111th overall.

That’s where the Red Raiders excelled this year, but there’s a catch. In terms of sacks allowed (1.85 per game), Tech did improve to rank No. 51 overall and ninth in the Big 12.

But that wasn’t so much because the offensive line got better in 2023 as it was because Tahj Brooks and the offensive line became the focal points of Tech’s attack instead of the throw. It is simple to understand why there was a significant drop in the amount of sacks per game when one considers that Tech threw the ball 570 times in 2022 and only 479 times in 2023.

Additionally, Hamby failed with the players he brought into the program—more especially, those from his prior stint. Both transfer guard Cole Spencer and transfer center Rusty Staats, who both played for Hamby at WKU, were signed by the coach in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

The issue was that neither lived up to expectations and both found it difficult to compete with Big 12 talent. As a Red Raider, Spencer would appear in just six games. This included being injured and missing the entire 2022 season.

Staats, however, failed to show that he was an improvement at center. In fact, he was switched to right guard halfway through the season. A portion of that decision was made because Dennis Wilburn, a former walk-on, was a better fit to occupy that slot, even if his wounded right shoulder made it difficult for him to snap the ball.

The truth is that neither of these two Hamby-related individuals was able to improve the offensive line for the Red Raiders. The other players he tutored weren’t either.

Now that the Red Raiders were risking everything with four new starters, it was obvious that a new coach was needed. It was comical how much of a mismatch Hamby’s offensive line presented against top defensive fronts such as Texas’. Therefore, a change was required, and it now seems the Red Raiders will receive it.