The reign of special teams coach Joe Lorig was only a few weeks as it was announced that he would coach special teams at Penn State. Texas Tech head coach Matt Wells wasted no time to name a successor special teams coach, Purdue special teams coach Mark Tommerdahl, who will be the associate head coach, coordinate the special teams, and assist with the offensive line.

Tommerdahl was at Purdue last year, but had spent previous time at TCU (1998-2000), Alabama (2001-2002), Texas A&M (2003-2007), California (2013-2016), Utah State (2017), and then Purdue last year. I think that the gap between the Texas &AM and California jobs he was in Louisiana, at both Louisiana Tech and Louisiana-Monroe.

I think it is a bit interesting in that Tommerdahl is assisting with the offensive line, which is fine, but Lorig was going to coach outside linebackers in addition to the special teams but would guess that defensive coordinator Keith Patterson will coach both inside and outside linebackers. I also don’t know why Tommerdahl is named as the associate head coach, maybe that was part of the deal in coming to Texas Tech was that he wanted the title of associate head coach? I’d also say that the fact that Wells has quickly replaced the coaches that have left, Javon Bouknight left for Oregon and Wells had Joel Filani hired the next day, and Lorig announced he was leaving with Tommerdahl hired the next day. That’s pretty quick work.

You can follow Tommerdahl on Twitter at MTommerdahl.