Coach Profile | Cornerbacks Coach Kevin Curtis

Coach: Kevin Curtis
Position: Cornerbacks
Alma Mater: Texas Tech
Coaching Experience:
2008-2009: Navarro College, Cornerbacks
2010-2012: Louisiana Tech, Cornerbacks

Curtis graduated from Texas Tech in 2002 and was a second team All-American for two years in a row, his junior and senior years and an All-Big 12 selection for three straight years. Curtis is from Lubbock (born in Germany) and went to Coronado.

Curtis then went on to play in the NFL for a couple of years and eventually returned to coaching in 2008 at Navarro College. Curtis and Kingsbury obviously played together at Texas Tech, but they also played together professionally, in Europe, for the Cologne Centurions of NFL Europe. I haven’t found any statistics as to Curtis’ time at Navarro College, but when Curtis was hired at Louisiana Tech, then head coach Sonny Dykes had this to say:

Kevin Curtis joins the staff coaching the cornerbacks after serving two years at Navarro Junior College where he coached the secondary. While at Navarro, Curtis' teams went 21-2, won two conference championships and were the 2009 C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl champions. Curtis' teams were ranked first in the country in interceptions and had five all-conference honorees while he recruited the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and West Texas areas.

So, obviously, after working at Navarro College for a couple of years, Curtis went back to a familiar face in Louisiana Tech head coach Sonny Dykes. Things have not gone well in Louisiana for the secondary. La. Tech is 120th, that’s dead last, in pass defense, and 107th in pass efficiency defense. As we are all too aware, there is more to pass defense that just defending the pass. It is about pass rush and it is about having solid run defense, of which La. Tech was 85th in both sacks and rush defense last year. It would be more accurate to say that the Louisiana Tech defense simply struggled. And to be fair, the pass defense was 95th last year.

La. Tech does create some interceptions as they had 10 this year and an astounding 21 interceptions last year. This may be Curtis’ penchant for doing something good and creating turnovers. For comparison purposes, Texas Tech had 7 interceptions this year and 5 last year. Texas Tech sorely lacked any sort of ability to create turnovers and hopefully, that is something that Curtis can bring to Lubbock. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see Texas Tech still give up a ton of yards through the air and part of that is the nature of the Big 12 and the offenses are so darned good. Being a secondary coach in the Big 12 is a thankless job. Good luck to you, Kevin.