OU takes Red Raiders' receivers coach

Texas Tech football assistant Emmett Jones, the Red Raiders' passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach this season, resigned on Tuesday to join the staff at Oklahoma.

Tech senior associate athletics director Robert Giovannetti said Jones notified athletics director Kirby Hocutt a little before 11 a.m. Tuesday that he was resigning at Tech and taking a job at OU. Jones was completing the first year of a three-year contract with annual compensation of $450,000, $475,000 and $500,000.

To hire Jones, Oklahoma owes Tech a contract buyout of $300,000, Giovannetti said.

Jones, a former Red Raiders player, was on Kliff Kingsbury's staff from 2016-18 and then spent 2019-21 coaching wide receivers at Kansas. He returned to Tech last off-season as a charter member of Joey McGuire's staff.

To cover a $600,000 buyout of his contract at Kansas, Tech made two $300,000 payments to KU, Tech senior associate athletics director Jonathan Botros said recently. The first was sent shortly after Tech hired Jones in December 2021 and the second came in the first quarter of 2022, Botros said.

Jones would replace L'Damian Washington, who served as the Sooners' interim wide receivers coach throughout the 2022 season. Washington took over in early August after the resignation of longtime OU assistant Cale Gundy.

Red Raiders get eight votes in AP poll

Eight of the 63 voters in The Associated Press Top 25 put Texas Tech on their ballot in the final poll of the season released early Tuesday after the College Football Playoff championship game.

Tech received one vote each at No. 21 and No. 22, four at No. 24 and two at No. 25. That added up to 19 points.

In the American Football Coaches Association poll released later Tuesday, the Red Raiders received 13 points. The coaches' poll does not make vote counts available on a weekly basis, beyond the breakdown of first-place votes.

Tech lands Syracuse transfer

Texas Tech added another player from the NCAA transfer portal on Tuesday when it announced the signing of Syracuse defensive edge rusher Steve Linton as a transfer. Tech said he will enroll for the spring semester, which starts Wednesday.

Linton, listed by Syracuse at 6-foot-5 and 219 pounds, has played both defensive end and outside linebacker in four seasons for the Orange, including a redshirt year. He will be a senior in 2023 with the Covid-bonus year available for 2024.

"We’re thrilled to add another key piece to our defensive front with Steve," coach Joey McGuire said in Tech's announcement. "Our program will always be built in the trenches, and his size and ability will be a great addition to an already-talented outside linebackers room. We look forward to him joining us immediately for the spring semester."

Syracuse finished 7-6 this season. Linton posted career highs across the board with 22 tackles, including six tackles for loss, 3 1/2 sacks, four quarterback hurries and two fumble recoveries.

He played in 29 career games for the Orange, starting two. In three years before this season, he was credited with 23 tackles, 2 1/2 tackles for loss, one sack and one fumble recovery.

He signed with Syracuse out of high school in Dublin, Georgia. At the time, he took recruiting official visits to Arizona State, South Florida, Baylor and Missouri.

Moore picks North Texas

Offensive lineman Larry Moore, who spent the past three seasons in the Texas Tech program, announced Tuesday he's committed to North Texas as a transfer.

Moore redshirted in 2020. He got into two games in 2021 and none this season.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Tech Tech roundup: OU takes Red Raiders' receivers coach