I'll admit when I first hear his name, I wasn't thrilled but then I started looking more at his resume and got to thinking that his experience might be one of the best we've had overall ever at Kentucky in terms of being an OC and the level at which he coached...
Bush Hamdan:
-Was the OC at Missouri & called plays (successfully) at the end of his last season
-Was the OC and had full control at Boise State last year...their coach was fired in season & their offense led them to a MWC title
-Was the OC & QB coach at Washington. During a playoff year too
-Was the QB coach for the Falcons & Matt Ryan the year after they won the Super Bowl.
-Worked under good offensive minds like Chris Peterson, Steve Sarkesian, Drinkiwitz, Bryan Harsin (good offensive mind, bad HC)
-Had stints as an assistant at P5 programs Colorado, Florida, and Maryland.
-He's coached wideouts and quarterbacks
I do think that he actually has the resume of a guy we like. Proven success in calling plays. Power 5 experience...SEC experience. NFL experience. Worked under some really great offensive minds. In terms of what we've brought in before....he's probably got one of the better resumes overall. He's got a lot of proven college experience and worked with many different QBs....knows the college game but has pro experience too. He's coached in a lot of different regions too.
So I've kinda tried to compare it to the OC's we've brought in over time....Neal Brown & Randy Sanders were probably the only ones with better experience.
Liam Coen: Coen 2.0 was more experienced...but he still has a lot more PRO experience than college. Really only 1 season at UK was his only major college experience. Now he did a great job, but you can tilt his resume as more of a pro guy. Plus, Hamdan actually has more experience than Coen did as a higher level NFL assistant than Liam did before we hired him in 2021.
Rich Scangarello: He was truly a pro guy and honestly....a lot of that year was due to the OL being flat out terrible. Who is to say how things would've gone had he had a better OL that year and Levis would've had time to showcase his talent. But it was clear, he wasn't a college guy.
Eddie Gran: He was an experienced guy, but low level Cincy in the AAC was the only playcalling experience. Not to mention, he was a RB coach and didn't help us with the passing game
Shannon Dawson: Had a few years as WVU's OC, but never called plays and you could tell that did not work.
Neal Brown: Neal actually had some good experience calling plays at Troy/TTU coming in to Kentucky and you could see that it was a successful stint in terms of improvement...(couldn't get much worse lol)
Randy Sanders: He actually was a solid QB coach IMO, but remember when he was OC that Joker was calling plays. Almost makes you wonder if the University should've promoted him to HC instead of Joker lol.
Joker Phillips: Had 0 experience in calling plays or being an OC before Kentucky
Ron Hudson: Had a good stint at Kansas State, but wasn't Bill Snyder calling plays?
Brent Pease: No experience really before he got moved up
Tony Franklin/Mike Leach: Doesn't really matter because Hal Mumme was the OC
Bush Hamdan:
-Was the OC at Missouri & called plays (successfully) at the end of his last season
-Was the OC and had full control at Boise State last year...their coach was fired in season & their offense led them to a MWC title
-Was the OC & QB coach at Washington. During a playoff year too
-Was the QB coach for the Falcons & Matt Ryan the year after they won the Super Bowl.
-Worked under good offensive minds like Chris Peterson, Steve Sarkesian, Drinkiwitz, Bryan Harsin (good offensive mind, bad HC)
-Had stints as an assistant at P5 programs Colorado, Florida, and Maryland.
-He's coached wideouts and quarterbacks
I do think that he actually has the resume of a guy we like. Proven success in calling plays. Power 5 experience...SEC experience. NFL experience. Worked under some really great offensive minds. In terms of what we've brought in before....he's probably got one of the better resumes overall. He's got a lot of proven college experience and worked with many different QBs....knows the college game but has pro experience too. He's coached in a lot of different regions too.
So I've kinda tried to compare it to the OC's we've brought in over time....Neal Brown & Randy Sanders were probably the only ones with better experience.
Liam Coen: Coen 2.0 was more experienced...but he still has a lot more PRO experience than college. Really only 1 season at UK was his only major college experience. Now he did a great job, but you can tilt his resume as more of a pro guy. Plus, Hamdan actually has more experience than Coen did as a higher level NFL assistant than Liam did before we hired him in 2021.
Rich Scangarello: He was truly a pro guy and honestly....a lot of that year was due to the OL being flat out terrible. Who is to say how things would've gone had he had a better OL that year and Levis would've had time to showcase his talent. But it was clear, he wasn't a college guy.
Eddie Gran: He was an experienced guy, but low level Cincy in the AAC was the only playcalling experience. Not to mention, he was a RB coach and didn't help us with the passing game
Shannon Dawson: Had a few years as WVU's OC, but never called plays and you could tell that did not work.
Neal Brown: Neal actually had some good experience calling plays at Troy/TTU coming in to Kentucky and you could see that it was a successful stint in terms of improvement...(couldn't get much worse lol)
Randy Sanders: He actually was a solid QB coach IMO, but remember when he was OC that Joker was calling plays. Almost makes you wonder if the University should've promoted him to HC instead of Joker lol.
Joker Phillips: Had 0 experience in calling plays or being an OC before Kentucky
Ron Hudson: Had a good stint at Kansas State, but wasn't Bill Snyder calling plays?
Brent Pease: No experience really before he got moved up
Tony Franklin/Mike Leach: Doesn't really matter because Hal Mumme was the OC
