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Pete ThamelESPN
The University of Hawai’i is turning to one of its own for its next head football coach. The school announced on Saturday night that former star quarterback Timmy Chang is returning to be the school’s next head coach.
Chang, 40, was previously the wide receivers coach at Colorado State. But at Hawaii he is remembered as the record-setting quarterback who rewrote the NCAA record book while in school and helped usher in a pass-happy era of college football.
Chang arrives at a fraught time for the Rainbow Warriors, as former coach Todd Graham resigned earlier this month in the wake of allegations that he mistreated players.
Chang not only starred at Hawai’i, but he’s also from Oahu and played high school ball at the Saint Louis School in Honolulu, paving the way for star quarterbacks in the state such as Marcus Mariota and Tua Tagovailoa.
Chang worked as a position coach at Nevada from 2017 to 2021 before going to Colorado State with coach Jay Norvell. He also has worked as the offensive coordinator at Emory & Henry and Jackson State and served as a graduate assistant at SMU.
On Friday, Hawaii offered the job to former coach June Jones, whom Chang played for at Hawaii. But Jones turned the job down because he was initially offered only a two-year contract, and he later said that the school wouldn’t give him full autonomy over hiring assistants.
In the plan to hire Jones, sources told ESPN that a plan was needed to be in place to have Chang as Jones’ successor. The school made public comments on Saturday critical of Jones’ handling of the process and pivoted to hiring Chang as the head coach.
Chang ranks No. 2 on the NCAA’s career passing list with 17,072 yards, trailing only Houston’s Case Keenum.