First impressions of Florida Atlantic University’s new football coach: he’s tall. Very tall.
At 6’7’’, Hagerty Family Head Football Coach Zach Kittley had to move the microphone at a 90-degree angle to address the media and community Friday during his official introduction.
“I took this job because I want to be here,” he said, promising to “bring the energy back to this football program.”
“I am honored to be your head football coach because I know that we’re going to build a program here and we’re going to go win AAC championships.”
From the stage at FAU, Kittley thanked a slew of people, from his family and friends to former coaches and mentors. He noted his father being “the greatest coach that I’ve ever been around”; Wes Kittley is a track and field coach at Texas Tech and has won his teams 31 national championships. He got emotional plenty of times, too, with the crowd erupting into applause when his voice cracked with emotion.
Prior to the press conference, Kittley spent a whirlwind 72 hours in meetings, especially in light of the transfer portal opening up on Monday.
“That’s all I’ve done the last three days; I’ve had one-on-one meetings with pretty much every member of the team,” he explained. “We got a couple of guys out in the portal which is going to be huge for us here, and again we got some guys that are wavering a bit…I feel good about where those guys are and we’ll see what happens.”
College sports have changed a lot in the last few years, with the transfer portal as well as NIL (you can read all about that in our feature, “Game Face”). Kittley said he would be active in fundraising NIL money, as well as general funding for the school’s football team and athletics department. He also noted the strong high school football programs in South Florida and said he would “make sure we dominate South Florida in recruiting.”
“Florida Atlantic University could not be in a better situation than it is right now. An all-time high in enrollment, climbing the ranks academically across the country, and we will continue to carry on that mission during my time here as head football coach.”
At just 33, Kittley comes with 12 years of coaching experience. He got his start at Texas Tech from 2013 to 2017, where he served as student assistant and graduate assistant coach. He moved onto Houston Christian from 2018 to 2020 as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, a role he also took at Western Kentucky in 2021 (the team will be playing in the Boca Raton Bowl on Dec. 18). Kittley then returned to Texas Tech from 2021 to December 2024.
In a release from FAU, Kittley was referred to as “the architect of the prolific offenses” of the teams he coached—during his first stint at Texas Tech, he overlapped with Patrick Mahomes, who would go on to become a Super Bowl winning quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs. In the last four seasons, Kittley coached bowl-eligible teams.
Kittley follows two coaches who have been fired from FAU’s football program. Tom Herman coached the Owls for two seasons before he was fired last month. Before him, Willie Taggart coached for three seasons before he was fired in November 2022.
With his background in coaching quarterbacks, Kittley said that he would be calling the shots as head coach.
“I’m absolutely calling the plays,” he said. “I’m going to coach the quarterback and I’m going to call the plays.”
Originally from Lubbock, Texas, Kittley played basketball at Abilene Christian and completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Texas Tech. He is married to Emily Kittley and the two have three young sons: Ford, Knox and Rhoads.
