It was confirmed today that Lee Hays and DeShaun Foster are both parting ways with Texas Tech. I’m a little late to the party so I don’t know who had the story first, but I’ll link to the always reliable LAJ’s Don Williams with the quote from head coach Kliff Kingsbury:

“We appreciate all that Coach Foster and Coach Hays have done for our football program,” Kingsbury said in the announcement. “We wish them nothing but the best moving forward.”

Hays leaving the program is a bit of a surprise as he has been with Kingsbury since day one, but after a less than stellar performance by the offensive line this past year, Hays has been dismissed. Williams seems to indicate that this was Kingsbury’s moved and not a situation where Hays left on his own accord. Hays had issues pretty much from the start of the season, with a lineup that he shuffled for most of the year and the line certainly lacked cohesiveness for most of the year. Additionally, there were a handful of players that were dismissed or retired due to injuries this past year, leaving the offensive line in a bit of flux. Williams’ article mentions that former Red Raider footballer Brandon Jones was just dismissed from Cal and is available.

One offensive line coach with Tech ties is available: The Jan. 8 firing of California head coach Sonny Dykes broke up his staff that included offensive line coach Brandon Jones, the former Mike Leach-era Red Raiders center.

Kingsbury now has two assistant coach positions to fill, the running back and offensive line positions. And make no mistake that these were the two worst performing units on the offensive side of the ball last year and they are both being replaced.