KSR SOURCES: Eddie Gran, Darin Hinshaw are being let go

Now that the regular season is over, the Kentucky Football program is making some changes.

Sources tell KSR that offensive coordinator Eddie Gran and co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Darin Hinshaw have been relieved of their duties. Another offensive assistant may be let go as well. Replacements have not been chosen, but the source tells KSR the search will be “wide” and focus on “opening up the offense.”

This season, Kentucky averaged 311.8 yards of total offense, which ranked 117th in the country, and 124.4 passing yards per game, which ranked 121st. UK was just as bad in the red zone, ranking in the bottom 25 nationally. Against Florida, Georgia and Alabama the Wildcats only scored one touchdown. Over Gran’s five years as offensive coordinator, Kentucky averaged 367 yards per game (11th in the SEC), 26.2 points per game (10th in the SEC), 225.9 rushing yards per game (4th in the SEC), and 155 passing yards per game (13th in the SEC).

Even though Kentucky’s passing offense was not always explosive, Gran found other ways to rewrite record books throughout his tenure.

Serving as Kentucky’s running backs coach, he helped turn Benny Snell in to the school’s all-time leading rusher in just three seasons, breaking a 43-year-old record. The Wildcats had a 1,000-yard rusher in each of his first four seasons and in 2019 he turned a hapless offense into a winner by playing a wide receiver at quarterback. Lynn Bowden’s Wildcat attack behind the Big Blue Wall broke the school’s single-game rushing record in consecutive games to end the regular season, including a 45-13 win over Louisville.

In five years with Gran at the helm of UK’s offense, the Wildcats were 36-26 with a 3-1 record in the Governor’s Cup. The Wildcats also won at Florida, at Tennessee, a walk-off comeback in the Belk Bowl and a Citrus Bowl victory that capped off a 10-win season in 2018.

Despite success in the first four years, the offense grew stale in 2020 with the former Cincinnati offensive coordinator and longtime Tommy Tuberville disciple at the helm. An emotionally and physically demanding year, instead of trying to crack the code one more time with Gran, Stoops is hitting the rest button offensively ahead of the 2021 season.

We’ll have more on this story as it develops.