Darin Hinshaw Discusses Playcalling

Dear football nerds, this one's for you. New quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator Darin Hinshaw joined the Voice of the Wildcats on Friday's edition of The Leach Report.  Even though we've entered the doldrums between spring football and summer workouts, hearing from Hinshaw has been rare during his first few months in Lexington. We still do not know too much about Hinshaw, but he's been extremely open during interviews.  When most coaches are asked about the progression of a specific player or how they pick plays, we often get a "coach speak" response (i.e. "it's all on feel," a la Shannon Dawson).  That's not the case with Coach Hinshaw. During his interview with Tom, he put their play-calling process on the table.  Frankly, it's fascinating. At the end of each series Gran will talk to Hinshaw in the box.  They'll go over what just happened on their end and what the defense is doing.  Hinshaw then gives his recommendations from what he's seeing, while Gran's input is based off the feel of the game from the field.  "Hey look Darin, we've got to run the ball.  We've got these guys winded," Hinshaw used as an example. "Then what we do is we put together a 5-6 play script together for first and second down," Hinshaw said.  Gran takes care of those while Hinshaw goes over which plays they'll pick for different third down scenarios.  Hinshaw uses similar protocol when the Cats cross into the red zone at the 25 (their red zone is five yards farther than normal). Play-calling isn't easy, and it's fairly new for Eddie Gran.  This rigorous process ensures they have everything covered while maintaining tempo.  "That's how we stay ahead in play-calling." You can listen to the entire interview below at the 25:00 mark.  You'll also hear his excitement when talking about Gunnar Hoak and Drew Barker's development.