Colorado State loses Timmy Chang, recently hired wide receivers coach named head coach at his alma mater

DENVER — Happy trails, Timmy Chang. 

Colorado State is already in need of a new wide receivers coach. Roughly one month after coming over from the University of Nevada with Jay Norvell, Matt Mumme and the crew, Chang has now been hired as the new head coach at University of Hawai’i. 

A native of Oahu, an alumnus of the school and one of the program’s greatest quarterbacks of all-time, it makes total sense that Chang would jump at the opportunity to serve as a head coach of the Warriors. 

“I’m back. I’m home. In my heart, I’ve never left,” Chang said in a public statement. “Like I’ve always done, I’m ready to give my all for Hawai’i. The highest privilege in coaching is the right to represent an institution as a head coach. This is beyond indescribable. I get to do it here in Hawai’i, where I am from. I am so proud to represent MY school and state. I’m honored to lead the BRADDAHHOOD.”

Obviously it will be an uphill battle for Chang to bring some stability to a team that has been a mess for months. Despite making a bowl game in 2021, the season was a train wreck for the Warriors inside the locker room. After public accusations of player mistreatment and mass transfers ultimately led to Todd Graham resigning from his position, even the coaching search was a bit of a mess for Hawai’i. 

The school very publicly courted June Jones, who was head coach of the Warriors from 1999-2007 and then SMU from 2008-2014, but that ultimately fell apart due to the 68-year-old only being offered a two-year contract with terms that included a future succession plan he disagreed with. 

After turning down the job on Friday, Jones posted the following on Twitter: “I am still interested in this job for the people of Hawai’i but the job offered to me today, there is no way I could accept the conditions offered (to) me. No coach in their right mind would accept!”

In response to the situation with Jones, UH athletic director David Matlin released this statement: “I understand that there has been a lot of support for Coach Jones this past week, but he has declined our offer. “I respect his decision and we need to move forward in our search. At the end of the day, we couldn’t agree on a succession plan that I felt was important for our student-athletes and supporters of Rainbow Warrior football.”

Ultimately UH landed on Chang this weekend, which was unsurprising after the Jones reunion blew up in everyone’s faces on social media. It’s a bummer for CSU, which has had a revolving door in the wide receiver room since Alvis Whitted left the Rams. But it’s one of those situations where the move just makes sense, so the right thing to do is just be happy for Chang. 

From UH’s standpoint, a program hero returning home to save his school in distress is a tremendous public relations move and immediately brings excitement back to Hawai’i football. The local fans will be much more patient with Chang than they ever would have been with an outsider with no ties or relationships to Hawai’i. 

And from Chang’s perspective, while it will be difficult to clean up the mess created by Graham and the Warriors athletic department, the opportunity to jump from wide receivers coach to head coach is a tremendous opportunity. At only 40 years old, even if he fails to revive UH football, it’s unlikely to be his final opportunity in a major coaching role. Everyone would understand what he walked into, so he pretty much has nothing to lose and everything to gain if things go well. 

Finally, while losing a trusted position coach to a team inside your conference is not ideal, especially given how much inside information he knows, you’d have to think that being a wide receivers coach in the air raid offense will be an appealing job. Norvell is not going to have trouble finding someone that wants to join what he is building at CSU. 

Let the search begin. 

Norvell makes defensive position coaches official 

While there now is an opening on the offensive staff, Jay Norvell made the addition of position coaches Adam Pilapil (linebackers) and Buddha Williams (defensive line) public on Friday. 

Pilapil comes over from Montana State with defensive coordinator Freddie Banks, while Williams was previously on the North Dakota State staff. Ironically the coaches faced each other in the 2022 FCS National Championship Game and will now be working together. 

The Dude is Texas bound 

Steve Addazio has found a new job. After being fired by Colorado State this winter, Addazio has now been hired to be the offensive line coach at Texas A&M University under Aggies HC Jimbo Fisher. The move is not publicly official, but according to multiple reports including from DNVR, the deal is in place. 

A fairly underwhelming head coach for the last decade at Temple, Boston College and CSU, Addazio does have a successful background as an offensive line coach in the SEC, so it’s not shocking that he landed a new gig. We all know how connected he is with some of the bigger coaches in the game, his relationship with Urban Meyer is why he ended up landing the CSU job in the first place. I’m sure having friends in high places played a big role in his hiring again, as does having a resume that includes national champion. 

According to the terms of his buyout, CSU presently owes Addazio $3 million over the next three years. However, as Kevin Lytle pointed out, being hired by Texas A&M would reduce that figure.