UCF Hires Darin Hinshaw as Offensive Coordinator and QB Coach

Jan 4, 2023 - 8:29 PM

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The UCF Knights have hired Darin Hinshaw as their new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Head coach Gus Malzahn made the announcement Wednesday afternoon:

Matt Zenitz of On3 Sports reported it first on Tuesday.

Hinshaw, previously the offensive coordinator at UAB, takes over for Chip Lindsey, who left UCF for North Carolina. Hinshaw was also an offensive analyst for UCF in Gus Malzahn’s first season in 2021.

Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel reported first that Hinshaw will also serve as the QB coach for the Knights.

You can watch a recording of Wedneday’s press conference here:

Head coach Gus Malzahn said in his press conference that Hinshaw will call plays at UCF. Malzahn has long been his own offensive playcaller, but Malzahn said the new responsibilities of being a head coach led him to decide to delegate that authority.

Once a Knight, Always a Knight

Hinshaw is a UCF legend. He played for the Knights from 1991-1994 under head coach Gene McDowell and offensive coordinator Mike Kruczek, leading the Knights to the Division I-AA Playoffs in his senior year.

He threw for exactly 9,000 yards as a Knight, which is still third all-time in program history, and second in TD passes with 82, two behind Daunte Culpepper.

He was also a two-sport athlete, playing five games on the Men’s Basketball team in 1993-94, when UCF went to the NCAA Tournament. He graduated with both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UCF.

After a pro career, Hinshaw returned to UCF as a graduate assistant in 1999 and later as QB coach in 2000. He then joined Middle Tennessee as a running backs coach, receivers coach, and later offensive coordinator from 2002-2005.

After stops at Georgia Southern, Memphis, Tennessee, and Cincinnati as a position coach, Hinshaw was named co-offensive coordinator and QB coach at Kentucky under Mark Stoops, where he stayed from 2016-2020. After a year as an analyst at UCF, he went to Birmingham in 2022, but was not retained on new head coach Trent Dilfer’s staff.

By the Numbers

Although he set records as a passer in his playing days at UCF, as an offensive coordinator, Hinshaw established himself as a running game specialist at Kentucky and UAB.

Last year, Hinshaw’s UAB offense finished 8th in the nation in rushing and 33rd in total offense, and RB DeWayne McBride finished second in the nation in rushing with more than 1,700 yards and led the nation in yards per carry at 7.35. McBride’s backfield mate, Jermaine Brown Jr., finished just shy of 1,000 yards himself.

Nine UAB offensive players were named All-C-USA, including all five of the Blazers’ offensive linemen.

At Kentucky, Hinshaw’s units finished in the top 35 in FBS in rushing in three of his five years, including 4th in 2019, and Lynn Bowden, Jr. ran for 1,468 yards (and an average of 7.9 per carry) after having to move over from WR to QB because of a spate of injuries. The Wildcats went to bowl games all five seasons.

Hinshaw will lead the program he quarterbacked for four seasons in Division I-AA into the Big 12 Conference as its new offensive coordinator.

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This story has been updated.