UCF has brought in former Purdue coach Danny Hope in an effort to fill the void left by the sudden death of offensive line coach Shawn Clark.
Hope, 66, is a veteran coach who spent much of his career coaching offensive lines at Louisville (1985-94), Oklahoma (1995), Wyoming (1996), USF (2015) and Eastern Kentucky (2019). He also served as head coach at EKU for five seasons, leading the Colonels to a first-round appearance in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs in 2007.
He twice coached at Purdue, first as offensive line coach and then as head coach, compiling a 22-27 record in four seasons.
Coach Scott Frost previously indicated that he would look to bring a veteran coach onto the staff to help out after Clark was hospitalized following a medical emergency on Sept. 9. The Knights relied on offensive quality control coach Alex Farah during Clark’s absence last week against North Carolina.
Farah and Clark briefly worked together before their time in Orlando.
“Alex has done a great job and he speaks the same language [as Clark] and [they] coach the same way,” Frost said. “Players love him, too. We looked for some relief pitchers to come in and help us. You need more than one guy working with the offensive line, just for numbers, and Danny Hope ended up coming in to coach.”
Hope worked with Clark for a decade at Eastern Kentucky and Purdue.
“It feels like Danny’s the grandpa, Shawn was the dad and Alex is the son,” Frost said. “There aren’t enough years in there to make that work, but it feels like they’re all coming from the same place.”
Matt Murschel can be reached at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com
