BREAKING: Texas Tech hires new wide receivers coach

Few hours after former wide receivers coach Jovon Bouknight left the program to accept the same position under Mario Cristobal at Oregon, the Red Raiders found a quality replacement who won’t be unknown among the fans in Joel Filani, who will take the position of outside receivers coach.

Filani was a wide receiver for the Red Raiders under Mike Leach in years between 2003 and 2006, and in both his junior and senior seasons had more than 1000 reception yards. In addition, in his last season with Texas Tech he earned First-team All-Big 12 honors.

He was drafted by the Tennessee Titans in the sixth round of the 2007 NFL Draft, and also had stints with Minnesota, Seattle, Detroit, St. Louis, and Tampa Bay. He also played in the UFL (California Redwoods) and in the arena league (San Jose SaberCats and Chicago Rush).

But let’s talk about things we are really interested in.

In 2013 and 2014 he was a graduate assistant at Boise State under Chris Petersen and Bryan Harsin, and in 2015 he was hider by his former coach Mike Leach as an offensive quality assistant at Washington State University.

In 2016 he was hired as wide receivers coach by Seth Littrell at North Texas, and he was one of the coaches who helped to develop an outstanding passing game that helped the Mean Green to win nine games in both 2017 and 2018.

Welcome back home, Joel!