Kentucky Football finalizes deals with Eddie Gran and Darin Hinshaw; Other staff changes made

The Kentucky Wildcats will have several news names and titles on the football staff in 2015.

Cincinnati Bearcats offensive coordinator Eddie Gran and quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator Darin Hinshaw are coming to Kentucky after accepting deals to join head coach Mark Stoops' staff.

There will be some title switches in order to accommodate everyone, according to Jon Hale of the Louisville Courier-Journal:

On Tuesday, UK head coach Mark Stoops finalized a deal with Cincinnati offensive coordinator Eddie Gran to accept the same job at Kentucky, a source confirmed to The Courier-Journal. Gran, who emerged as the leading candidate for the job shortly after Dawson was let go, will also coach the running backs coach at Kentucky. Cincinnati quarterbacks coach Darin Hinshaw has also agreed to join the UK staff in the same capacity. UK assistant Chad Scott, who coached running backs in each of the last three season, will now coach the UK wide receivers.

Gran spent the past three seasons with Cincinnati, where his Bearcat offense set 18 school records this season. Gran also was a coach at Auburn and Tennessee. This past season, Cincy ranked No. 4 nationally in passing offense (373 yards per game), No. 5 in total offense (559 yards per game) and No. 24 in scoring offense (36.1 ppg).

Hinshaw, who played quarterback at Central Florida, also coached quarterbacks at Tennessee from 2010-11 before coaching receivers in 2012. he's since been the passing game coordinator at UC and has previous coaching stops as an assistant at Memphis, Georgia Southern, Middle Tennessee State and Central Florida.

He was at Memphis from 2007-09 as the wide receivers coach. He joined the Tigers staff after serving one season as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Georgia Southern.

There's also this from Justin Rowland and Jen Smith:

Was told yesterday either Scott or Marrow would coach receivers. Its Scott. He is well liked. Has to deal with some egos there.

— Justin Rowland (@RowlandRIVALS) December 29, 2015

Hinshaw will serve as a co-offensive coordinator on the Kentucky staff.

— Jen Smith (@jenheraldleader) December 29, 2015

Head coach of offense is a very symbolic title for Gran. It is Stoops saying he trusts Gran and will not micromanage.

— Justin Rowland (@RowlandRIVALS) December 29, 2015

That note about Gran being in sole control of the offense is the real story. One of the biggest issues with the offense last season was Stoops didn't trust Shannon Dawson enough to give him full reigns on the offense and too often had a hand in the play-calling.

All indications are that Stoops will leave Gran with complete control of the offense and not micromanage him. He trusts Gran from their years coaching together at Florida State, not to mention Gran's far more extensive background as a successful coordinator than Dawson.

And it looks like both the additions of Hinshaw and Gran were good ones by Kentucky:

I thought Eddie Gran was a good hire for Kentucky. Think Gran + Hinshaw is an excellent hire. Hinshaw is so good with QBs & other coaches.

— FootballScoop Staff (@FootballScoop) December 29, 2015