Darin Hinshaw is coming home.
The former UCF quarterback returns to his alma mater as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He will assume complete control of the offense, including play calling.
Gus Malzahn officially introduced Hinshaw on Wednesday afternoon. Here's a recap of the 30-minute press conference:
Malzahn has always prided himself on being a head coach that also maintains control of the offense, but about halfway through this past season he realized it was becoming too much of a demand.
After Chip Lindsey departed for North Carolina, Malzahn said there were a few things he was looking for in a new OC: Quarterback development, successful history calling plays, someone "desperate to succeed" as an OC like he was, a solid track record in both the runing and passing game and someone who would bring in fresh ideas.
"Darin was all of the above with that," Malzahn said.
Hinshaw did work on Gus Malzahn's 2021 UCF staff as a defensive analyst.
"I saw the type of person he was and the love he has for this place," Malzahn said. "That's why he was the perfect hire."
Hinshaw began his remarks by saying it was "surreal" to be back at UCF. He threw his first touchdown pass in 1991 and now he's back as offensive coordinator.
"The No. 1 guy I have to thank is Gus Malzahn," Hinshaw said. "He's been an icon in offense for 25 years. For him to give me the play-calling duties is a great honor. I want to make him proud. I'm excited about this role. I'm excited to be home and to be at UCF. I bleed Black and Gold. The people that know me in the coaching industry know that. This is my dream job."
Hinshaw outlined his vision for the offense.
"You're going to see an offense that's going to be fast," Hinshaw said. "We're going to be multiple tempo. We are going to have a hard-nosed physical run game. And we are going to throw the football down the field. We're going to have an efficient passing game. We will take shots. We're going to train our players and train our quarterbacks how to do that. I've done it my whole career. I've been great throwing the football at places and running the ball. To have an opportunity to do it at UCF, I'm so excited and ready to go."
Hinshaw began his coaching career at UCF, first as a graduate assistant in 1999 and then quarterbacks coach in 2000. He departed the next year for Middle Tennessee. He spoke his coaching journey over the past two decades.
"Gene Chizik was the defensive coordinator here," Hinshaw said. "He said to me, 'You got to move on to be able to move up. You'll come back one day.' He introduced me to Larry Fedora who was running a tempo offense at Middle Tennessee. I got to work under him for one year and later became the offensive coordinator. I was the youngest offensive coordinator in Division I calling plays."
Hinshaw continued by talking about the offense they ran at UCF under Mike Kruczek. As quarterback, he threw for 9,000 yards during his career. The torch was passed to Daunte Culpepper, who passed for 11,000 yards. Then Ryan Schneider threw for 10,000 yards.
"Those were back to back to back," Hinshaw said. "That's pretty impressive what we did throwing the football. I like to throw the football. That's who I am. But I've also learned in this process to run the football. It's a must."
Hinshaw said he just got out of a meeting with the offensive staff discussing their returning players.
"I really like what our roster looks like," Hinshaw said.
Hinshaw described the 2021 season in which he worked for Malzahn as a defensive analyst as "one of the best years I've had."
"I was the right-hand man to Travis Williams," Hinshaw said. "It was a great experience to learn what a defensive coordinator is thinking and to be able to help him know what we're thinking offensively and how to attack a defense."
Hinshaw was asked about his philosophy as a play caller.
"I'm aggressive," Hinshaw said. "That's who I've always been. As a play caller, there's situational football too... Play calling has to go with what defenses are doing. As defenses continue to hunker down to stop run games, you have to throw the ball vertically down the field. When they're playing back, you have to be able to run the football."
In moving to the Big 12 next season, Hinshaw called it "one of the greatest times in UCF history."
He then expanded on UCF's rise since his playing days.
"As an alumni and having played here, I'm just so proud of the university," Hinshaw said. "Where it has gone from when I played here, when I left as a coach and where it is going. I have so many people I'm tied to as far as alumni and in this city. My mom and dad live here. I have two brothers who live here. My kid goes to school down the street. I'm excited about what UCF has done and where it's going."
Hinshaw expanded on his history as an offensive play caller, which began at Middle Tennessee. He even said Mike Kruczek allowed him to call some plays at UCF during the 2000 season. At Georgia Southern, they transitioned from an option offense. He worked with Clay Helton calling plays at Memphis. He spoke about working with Jim Chaney at Tennessee, moving to a tempo offense.
At Cincinnati, he collaborated with Eddie Gran with a lot of success. The duo then moved on to Kentucky where they faced some unique challenges with quarterbacks but still managed to go to five straight bowl games.
"I've been calling plays my whole life," Hinshaw said. "One thing Mike Kruczek did was train me how to call the offense from the line of scrimmage. That is when you're at your peak, when you can sit there and call the offense, knowing as the quarterback what the offensive coordinator is thinking. That's how I like to train quarterbacks. I want them thinking like I am."
Hinshaw shared a story about observing with the New Orleans Saints.
"When we went in the offensive staff room, I sat next to the offensive coordinator and Drew Brees ran the meeting. It was pretty darn impressive. You want your quarterback to understand what you're thinking."
Hinshaw thanked everyone for the support, saying he's had a barrage of messages since the news surfaced he would be UCF's new OC.
"I think there's a lot of people in this business and this community that know how passionate I am about this job," Hinshaw said. "This is my dream job. This is where I want to be, UCF. I'm looking forward to this process and this challenge."
Asked about the hiring process, Hinshaw was in the Bahamas for UAB's bowl game when he got the news Chip Lindsey was leaving. He said about 10 people from UCF reached out and encouraged him to contact Gus Malzahn. He immediately did so - he called and left a long message for Gus.
On the current quarterback room, which includes John Rhys Plumlee, Timmy McClain, Thomas Castellanos and will later include recruit Dylan Rizk, Hinshaw said he spoke with each of them over the phone. Players will be reporting back to campus in the coming days.
"The bottom line is this and I've done this everywhere I've been," Hinshaw said. "It's a clean slate. Everybody has an opportunity to be the starting quarterback. That's the truth... I've done that every year. The reason is you want competition in the room. You don't set the depth chart before anybody does anything. I learned that as a player. When I played here, every year they brought in a guy to take my job. Transfers came in. It made me better. The biggest thing you want in that room is competition, which makes the room better.
"The one thing I will say about room is we're going to love each other. We're going to cheer for each other and care for each other. That will not change with me. We'll have fun in that room and have fun in our offensive room. When I say fun, I want them to be excited to come into that room."
Following Hinshaw's remarks, Gus Malzahn returned to the podium to answer questions.
Malzahn said everything happened quickly when Chip Lindsey departed right before bowl prep. He said he had an "open mind" regarding the hire. He talked to some "big time" and "great" coaches. He wanted to wait until after the bowl game before making a decision. He wanted to find the "best guy" and that was Darin Hinshaw.
"You can see his passion," Malzahn said. "It stands out. He had everything I was looking for. I'm going to give up play calling and be a head coach. In this day and time, I don't know how head coaches can be play callers. There's probably a few out there that can still pull it off. There's more challenges than ever before. I'm real excited about the next step in my head coaching career. Spending time with our players and overseeing our program. We have our hands full with the NIL world right now, the one-time transfer and the roster management."
When hired by UCF in February 2021, Malzahn said he always envisioned he'd call plays. But a lot has changed in two years.
"It's almost like an NFL roster you're managing," Malzahn said. "The challenges of everything that goes with it and feeling that throughout the season. Things I really needed to be doing instead of being in that film room wondering about third-and-one or third-and-two."
Malzahn was asked about the current quarterback depth and whether they may look for another addition to the room.
"I'm going to let Darin evaluate everything," Malzahn said. "We're excited about working with these guys in the spring and we'll see what happens."
Malzahn reiterated how important it was to hire a quarterback developer like Hinshaw.
How does he expect Hinshaw's offense to differ from his own?
"It's going to be him calling the plays and running the offense," Malzahn said. "Obviously build upon the strengths we have. But we've got to open this thing up. I want Darin to bring his fresh and new ideas. What I liked is when he talks about vertically down the field. That gets me excited. I think that will get our fans excited. I know our players will be excited. That's what we need and that's what he's going to bring."
Malzahn said he speaks often with coaches within his tree and there's a consensus that it's becoming more difficult to juggle both head coach and offensive responsibilities. He mentioned Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz, who also recently made the decision to turn over play calling to an offensive coordinator.
"I think that's where we're at," Malzahn said. "If you can still call plays and be a head coach at this level in this day and time, you're a real unique person. I know there's a couple who still do it and are really good at it. I think that list is going to get shorter and shorter."
