Former Purdue coach Danny Hope joins UCF program reeling from the loss of his protege, Shawn Clark
Former Purdue coach Danny Hope returned to the football field for the first time since 2019, in part, to honor the work of his late protege, Shawn Clark, UCF Knights coach Scott Frost said Monday. Hope gave a young Clark his first coaching job above a graduate assistant level in 2003 as his offensive line coach at Eastern Kentucky.
The two worked together for five seasons before Hope took a position on Purdue's staff in 2008, but when he took the head job in 2009, he brought Clark with him. Clark remained his offensive line coach during Hope's entire tenure at Purdue from 2009 to 2012. The two professionally parted ways after that. Hope, for his part, mostly stayed out of coaching, only having brief stints as an offensive line coach with South Florida in 2015 and Eastern Kentucky in 2019. Since he last coached, he's served as the Athletics Development Liaison for the Eastern Kentucky University Office of Development and Alumni Engagement. Frost said Hope was in Cocoa Beach when Clark tragically passed away on Sept. 21. Just under a week earlier, Frost said offensive quality control coach Alex "Bear" Farah would take over coaching the offensive linemen, but he would also seek a veteran offensive line coach to pair with him. He chose Hope not just for his physical proximity to Orlando, but also because of how personally close he was with Clark. "He's got the same fire and has the same little phrases that Clark says, so it's good to have him around," offensive lineman Carter Miller said of Hope. Miller said Hope "brings a lot of technique" and teaches the line how to "really break things down and focus on the little things." Hope made his UCF debut in its Big 12 Opener against Kansas State, and while Frost said it takes a while to "get up to speed on scheme and vocabulary and terminology," he thinks Hope can help "more and more" as the season goes on. "So, there's technique things and just fundamental things that we need to execute at a higher level, and we didn't pick up twists very well last week," Frost said. "We're going to work the heck out of that, so there's some things can help us with, and I think as time goes along, he'll be able to help us more and more."Bryson Turner is a sports journalist who covers UCF Athletics. Turner has contributed to the Black and Gold Banneret, the home for UCF Athletics on SB Nation. He has called the Orlando area home since the age of 8 and received his bachelor's and master's degrees from UCF.
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