Why Herb Hand is the Most Important Hire of the Malzahn Era.
Gus Malzahn’s staff is tremendous. It’s been a serious upgrade to the last mess of a staff. The biggest upgrade was at offensive line. I have mentioned this time and time again, but Glen Ellarbee was a complete joke he couldn’t recruit, couldn’t coach, and was an asshole. The man thought that he was better than he was. According to PFF, last year UCF’s offensive line was 115th in the country. It was an abysmal failure, they were bullied throughout the season. The line regressed every single year that Ellarbee was in charge. The line looked really small last year. This was not the line that we have come to expect from UCF. Heck Ellarbee ruined Jordan Johnson’s career. Johnson could have been a nfl draft prospect if he had a competent. offensive line coach. But instead he had Glen Ellarbee who caused Johnson to regress. Hell, Ellarbee’s last two recruits were from Germany. He couldn’t even recruit in the country. He turned the offensive line into one of UCF’s worst units last year.
So Gus Malzahn needed to find someone that could fix this unit. Someone that he knew would be good at both recruiting and development. Someone who had experience in developing and recruiting offensive linemen. Someone with a stellar reputation despite the crazy people in Texas saying he underachieved. That was why Gus hired Herb Hand. Hand has one of the best reputations for an offensive line coach. He’s highly respected in the industry for his work everywhere he has been, yes even you Texas. He’s been nominated for Broyles awards, won the best offensive line coach award, put numerous prospects into the nfl, recruited well. He is the exact opposite of that talentless hack Glen Ellarbee. While Ellarbee needed Heupel to constantly defend him and his awful offensive line, Hand will let his players do the talking for him.
I was stunned that UCF landed Hand. His work as an oline coach is outstanding. Just take a look at his work with Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt is not known to be a football powerhouse yet under Hand they had a top 50 offensive line. They haven’t been in the top 50 in offensive lines since Hand left. Then Hand had to fix the utter mess that was Penn State’s offensive line. Hand worked a miracle transforming that line. In fact Saqon Barkley gave credit to Hand for transforming that line in his tenure. At both Auburn and Texas, Hand had top 30 offensive lines. Again everywhere he has been he has produced players that get drafted. So imagine what the hell he is going to do with this young UCF offensive line. Hand is going to do absolutely wonders with this offensive line.
Ucf’s oline was soft under Ellarbee. We saw more physical defensive lines push UCF’s offensive line around year. That’s how Cincinnati and Tulsa have beaten the Knights the last two years. That won’t be a problem under Herb Hand. Hand’s lines are known to be tough and physical. That is what Gus requires from his offensive lines. A line that is big and physical. One that can hold their blocks for more than 3 seconds. This is the main difference between Ellarbee’s lines and Hand’s lines. Ellarbee’s lines were small and soft. The UCF lines were super small because Heupel wanted them to be. Ellarbee was not interested in finding some big hoss offensive linemen that could be physical. In fact he wanted guys that were more finesse over physical. We have seen how disastrous that strategy was. Hand is the opposite, his lines are big and will be tougher than other lines. UCF will no longer be pushed around. They will do the pushing. Hand will instill a toughness in the offensive line that UCF fans have been longing for.
Hand can also recruit. I know that some Texas fans will argue this point, but just a quick scroll through 247 shows that the man is an underrated recruiter. His list is full of 5, 4, high 3 stars. In fact Hand just got UCF’s first commitment from a Lakeland player in over a decade. He has been a grinder on the recruiting since he got to Orlando. Hell he has even gone big game hunting in the form of trying to get Payton Kirkland to stay home. It’s easy to see why he has been able to kill it on the recruiting trail so far. He has an infectious personality heck just look at his introduction press conference. He oozes charisma and is someone you want to be around. You want to just grab a beer with Hand and hang out with him. He has a personality that will do wonders for the Knights recruiting. Does anyone remember ever seeing Glen Ellarbee. Perhaps he was too busy taking vacations to Berlin to actually show any personality. The man was a dead fish and that reflected in the fact that he could not recruit here. Hand doesn’t have that issue.
Hand gets it. He knows. how important recruiting Florida and in. the Deep South is. Just look at his target lists the players are from Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas, Alabama, etc. There is no recruit from friggan Germany on the list. Hand knows that the way UCF can be successful is by recruiting this area especially for offensive line recruits. Hand is going to build this line based on his image. A tough offensive line that is also athletic. Just watch any interview he has given since he has stepped foot in Orlando. He wants a tough offensive line that is also athletic. No longer will this line be slow, small, and soft. Hand understands this and will transform this offensive line back to where this line should be.
Gus Malzahn has made some impressive hirings since he arrived in Orlando. I will talk about more later, but the most important hiring was Herb Hand. Everyone knows that the UCF offensive line was an utter disaster last year. Glenn Ellarbee had been an utter failure as an offensive line coach and recruiter. That is why he brought in Herb Hand. Hand is going to fix everything that Glenn Ellarbee failed at.
