The Hawaii football team has reached to the NFL for its offensive coordinator.

Gary Joe “GJ” Kinne, who spent the past season with the Philadelphia Eagles as an offensive assistant, has been tabbed to direct head coach Todd Graham’s vertical-stretch, no-huddle attack.

Kinne is familiar to both Graham and Hawaii football fans. Kinne threw for 343 yards and three touchdowns in leading Tulsa to a 62-35 victory over Hawaii in the 2010 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl. Graham was head coach of the Golden Hurricane.

Kinne began his college career at Texas, where he redshirted as a freshman in 2007. The following spring, he transferred to Tulsa. He redshirted again in 2008 in accordance with NCAA transfer rules. But he seized the starting quarterback’s job in 2009, embarking on a three-season run in which he amassed 9,472 passing yards and 81 touchdowns.

Kinne had signed free-agent contracts with the New York Jets, New York Giants and Eagles.

In 2017, he was hired as an assistant coach at SMU under Chad Morris. When Morris resigned after the regular season to join Arkansas, Kinne was elevated to SMU’s offensive coordinator for the 2017 Frisco Bowl. After that, Kinne went to Arkansas as an offensive analyst.

This past season, he worked with the Eagles’ special projects.

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