(Vicky Graff Photo for YourSportsEdge.com)
Darin Hinshaw knows plenty about throwing the football because during his Central Florida playing career he threw for about 9,000 yards and 82 touchdowns.
“I broke every school record but only got to hold them for four years because Daunte Culpepper came and crushed my records,” said Hinshaw, Kentucky’s co-offensive coordinator, said Monday during an appearance at the Louisville Quarterback Club.
“But it is great to coach the position that I played and not everybody gets to do that. I know what those guys are going through. When you get on the side of the head and you still have to get up and call a play, I have been there and lived it. I can relate to those guys and what they go through.”
Like most quarterbacks, Hinshaw likes throwing the football but like Eddie Gran, UK’s assistant head coach of the offense/offensive coordinator, he understands the value of a balanced passing/running attack.
“Last year we were more about running the ball. We had a first year quarterback with Terry Wilson and he only threw about 20 times a game. We are going to have to increase that this year to 35 to 40 times a game,” Hinshaw said.
What? Double the passing attempts?
Kentucky leaned on a stout defense and all-time leading rusher Benny Snell to grind out wins last year — and it worked as UK went 10-3. Wilson was 180 of 268 passing for 1,889 yards and 11 scores.
“We have a great coach in Mark Stoops who understands the game and managing the game. A lot of times on the headset (last year) you would hear (from Stoops), ‘Don’t screw this up.’ We have the defensive player o the year and we knew what we had to do and that was the recipe for winning 10 games and we are going to find the recipe this year,” Hinshaw said. “We should have won 12 last year and 10 the year before. We are very close to making Kentucky great.”
And apparently, to be “great” this year, that’s going to mean a lot more passing attempts for Wilson.
