Former Oklahoma Sooners tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley was the first coaching staff domino to fall in Norman this offseason, but he’s reportedly found a new home, and he’ll be coaching in the Pac-12 in 2026. Finley was dismissed by the Sooners on January 1st after five years on the job.
Now, Finley will coach at Texas State as an offensive assistant on head coach G.J. Kinne’s staff, according to a report from CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz. Finley will be working with the quarterbacks in San Marcos, despite having no prior experience coaching the position.
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Finley played the tight end position at Oklahoma from 2004 to 2007, and he had an excellent final two seasons for the Sooners. After playing in the NFL from 2008 to 2012, he began his coaching career at Oklahoma and at the high school level. After a stop at Baylor, he began coaching tight ends at both Missouri and Texas A&M.
Finley was the passing game coordinator at Ole Miss in 2020, before former OU head coach Lincoln Riley hired him back to his alma mater to coach his old tight end position. Finley stayed on when head coach Brent Venables took over, working under new offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby in 2022 and 2023.
When Lebby, who has a close relationship with Finley, left to become the head man at Mississippi State, Finley was promoted to co-offensive coordinator with Seth Littrell at OU, with Littrell calling the plays. That arrangement lasted just seven games in 2024 before Littrell was fired, and Finley was promoted again, this time to play-caller. Offensive analyst Kevin Johns would replace Littrell, serving as the interim co-OC and QBs coach, while Finley continued to coach the tight ends.
Finley called the offensive plays for the final six games of the ’24 season, and stayed on staff when Ben Arbuckle was hired as the offensive coordinator. However, he was demoted back to only coaching tight ends in 2025. For the past few seasons, Finley’s tight ends have been a weak point on the roster, after having early success during his first couple of years back in Norman.
Finley has been replaced by new tights ends coach Jason Witten, but he’s landed on his feet in a support staff role with the Bobcats, who are joining the new-look Pac-12 this year. This means that all three of Oklahoma’s co-offensive coordinators from the 2024 season are now either support staffers or position coaches, with Littrell as the senior offensive analyst at Tennessee, Finley as an offensive assistant working with quarterbacks at Texas State, and Johns working under Lebby at Mississippi State as the quarterbacks coach in Starkville.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Former Oklahoma Sooners TE coach lands with Pac-12 program
