University of Hawaii offensive coordinator G.J. Kinne excited to see what QB Chevan Cordeiro can do

When asked about the University of Hawaii football team’s potential production, offensive coordinator G.J. Kinne got straight to the point.

“I told Chevan he has to be the point guard of our offense,” Kinne said of quarterback Chevan Cordeiro. “Just spray the ball out there, pepper (the receivers) with completions. That’s what I tell him every day: ‘pepper ’em with completions, pepper ’em with completions, get the ball out of your hand.’ He’s done a great job doing that.”

Kinne was optimistic following Tuesday’s two-hour practice, the eighth full workout of training camp. UH’s training was put on pause for two days last week after four players tested positive for the coronavirus. But following their fourth consecutive day of practice, the Rainbow Warriors have regained their groove, in Kinne’s view, with Cordeiro at the controls of the run-and-gun offense.

“He’s an elite quarterback,” Kinne said. “His dedication to the game … he studies harder than anyone I’ve seen. He works harder than anyone I’ve been around. He has tremendous athleticism. I tell him that all the time. God blessed him with great athleticism and speed, accuracy, strong arm. He’s really the whole package. He’s everything you want in a quarterback. I’m very blessed, you know, my first offensive coordinator job that I’ve had … someone like Chevan.”

A decade ago, Kinne was Tulsa’s starting quarterback under Todd Graham. After a seven-year pro career, Kinne was on the Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive staff when he received a coaching offer from Graham. Graham was hired as UH’s head coach in January.

Kinne said he was prepared for Graham’s expectations. “You just go out there and work your butt off every day,” Kinne said.

To craft an offense, Kinne intensively studied the run-and-shoot schemes the Warriors had run in the past. “I watched all the games from last year,” Kinne said. “I went back and watched the 2010 season when (Bryant) Moniz was the (UH) quarterback. I went back and watched (former UH coach) June Jones when he was (coaching) at SMU. I tried to keep as much that fit, what I think we could be good at. Did that. Then, obviously, I’m going to add my own wrinkles. But at the same time, it’s going to be pretty similar (to the run-and-shoot).”

In consultation with co-coordinator Bo Graham and the other offensive assistants, Kinne has blended concepts from the air raid, a rat-a-tat-paced scheme that employs deep routes and check-down patterns. The newly branded run-and-gun makes use of the Warriors’ depth on the line (nine players started games in 2019 and four are taking reps at center in camp) and at the receiver positions.

Kinne said Kamali‘i Akina, who was a walk-on quarterback at Arizona State in 2016 when Graham was the Sun Devils’ head coach, and Boone Abbott have split the reps as the No. 2 quarterback. Justin Uahinui, Armani Edden and Jake Farrell are the other UH quarterbacks.

“It’s all about execution,” Kinne said of choosing the game-day menu of plays. “Whatever you feel you’re going to execute at a high level, we’re going to do. They’ve got a lot of reps at a lot of great concepts that they’ve run here in the past so when it comes to that, we’re going to do some of those things. We’re going to add in some new wrinkles.”

Kinne will call the plays from the sideline after receiving intel from Bo Graham in the booth.