‘I have never fit the norm.’ How unique background led Bush Hamdan to Kentucky football.

Bush Hamdan is not your prototypical college football coach.

One of the few college coaches of Middle Eastern descent, Hamdan, whose mother is from Pakistan and father is from Palestine, was born in Kuwait and immigrated to the United States with his family after the start of the Gulf War. In Hamdan’s only college start — a senior day cameo in 2008 at Boise State — he threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown on his first pass. His 15-year coaching career has included stops with 10 teams.

Those are not exactly the clear signs that point toward one day landing one of the coveted offensive coordinator positions in college football’s top league. But one of his first brushes with play-calling might have foreshadowed future stardom for Kentucky football’s new offensive coordinator.

Hamdan attempted just two passes for Boise State’s undefeated 2006 team but still gets credit for an assist in one of the most memorable games in college football history. Boise State coach Chris Petersen allowed his backup quarterbacks to chime in on the coaching headsets during games when they saw something that might help offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin.

So, when Hamdan noticed the team’s “Statue of Liberty” trick play was open off a screen pass executed earlier in the Fiesta Bowl matchup with Bob Stoops’ Oklahoma squad, he was bold enough to notify the Boise State coaches. Fellow backup quarterback Taylor Tharp did the same.

With a chance to tie or take the lead in overtime, Petersen elected to go for the win with a two-point conversion.

“Look, anybody could have said, ‘Statue is there,’ but for Chris Petersen to make the call and make it in that time was where it was at — I think when he called it I was probably losing my mind,” Hamdan told the Herald-Leader in a recent one-on-one interview. “It was the first time in my young career where you’re like, now you’ve got skin in the game.

“… I don’t think I ever talked to him like this, but I was like, ‘Are you crazy? This is the call right now?’ It worked, and I was probably the first one to say, ‘I told you it was going to work.’”

Boise State executed the “Statue Left” play to perfection with running back Ian Johnson going untouched into the end zone for the win. In the aftermath of the historic upset, the role of Hamdan and Tharp in helping push the staff to call the play merited mention in a handful of recaps, but even Hamdan would have doubted at the time it was a sign of a future coaching career.

He still had his sights set on winning the Boise State starting job as a junior or senior. After falling short in both competitions, Hamdan elected to finish his career at Boise State rather than transfer elsewhere in search of more playing time.

Upon completing his eligibility, Hamdan still did not know what his future held. A call from Dan Hawkins, the coach who recruited him to Boise State, with an offer to join his Colorado staff in an entry-level position gave him a chance to try coaching.

“I was always into the teaching thing, so I really enjoyed that element,” Hamdan said. “… After about two to three months I really felt hooked. That was my calling.”

Bush Hamdan’s path to Kentucky football

There has been little time for Hamdan to slow down since he arrived in Lexington. The timing of former Kentucky offensive coordinator Liam Coen’s return to the NFL left coach Mark Stoops with a tight timeline to find a replacement before spring practice.

Stoops has pushed the start of spring practice back two weeks from its usual opening date before the university’s spring break, but Hamdan’s days remained filled with self-scouting his 2023 Boise State offense, evaluating his new Kentucky players and working with his new coaching staff to prepare his offense to be installed in spring practice.

It is a stress Hamdan welcomes with open arms.

As he discussed the early days of his Kentucky tenure at a coffee shop near the hotel where he is currently living, Hamdan remembered a similar coffee shop where he spent many days looking for a job at the low point of his coaching career.

After Hamdan had been promoted from graduate assistant to wide receivers coach at Florida when the Gators’ previous receivers coach resigned, he landed the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach position at Arkansas State for the 2013 season, working for his former Boise State offensive coordinator, Harsin. Arkansas State won a share of the Sun Belt championship that season, but when Harsin left for the head coaching job at Boise State, he did not bring Hamdan with him.

“I think naturally you call all the people that make you feel good about it,” Hamdan said. “They tell you why that was wrong, why you should have been there. I think I finally just picked up the phone and called my brother. He was like, ‘Let me tell you something: Nobody cares. Really, nobody cares. You’ve got some decisions you’ve got to make if you want to do this thing. But if you want to do this thing, it’s going to happen time and time again.’

“So, I leaned on that. I realized that. I think after that moment I sat in a Starbucks much like this for 30 straight days, for 15 straight hours a day and just kind of went through it like I was the coordinator of the Denver Broncos. That process stayed with me for a long, long time. I think I’ve had to lean on it in certain situations when things have not been good.”

Hamdan eventually landed at FCS Davidson as offensive coordinator, but the movement was far from finished.

A year at Davidson was followed by two seasons working for Petersen at Washington. In what Hamdan calls the most difficult decision of his coaching career, he left Petersen’s staff after the 2016 season to be quarterbacks coach for the Atlanta Falcons, reuniting with former Florida colleague Dan Quinn.

The year in the NFL helped Hamdan refine his offensive philosophy, integrating elements from the Kyle Shanahan offense coordinator Steve Sarkisian ran with the Falcons into his scheme. Hamdan then returned to Washington as offensive coordinator but was fired two seasons later after Petersen retired from coaching.

In another reminder of the value of leaving a positive impression on the people you work with, Hamdan resurfaced at Missouri working for Eliah Drinkwitz, who was the offensive coordinator during Hamdan’s season at Arkansas State. Hamdan coached wide receivers and quarterbacks in three seasons at Missouri and was elevated to offensive play-caller for the final three games of the 2022 regular season.

“A guy that just got along with everybody,” Hawkins said of Hamdan. “Could really interact with everybody. He’s like another son to me. I love his whole family.”

Nine years after Harsin did not bring Hamdan with him to Boise State, Hamdan did return to his alma mater as offensive coordinator. But with two games left in the 2023 season, Boise State fired head coach Andy Avalos and promoted defensive coordinator Spencer Danielson to head coach. Danielson was eventually awarded the full-time job after a 2-1 finish to the season.

“I can’t tell you how much I respect Spencer Danielson and the job there, what he’s done, but in a lot of ways I was sitting there going, ‘I think I should get interviewed for this job,’” Hamdan said. “When that did not happen, it’s like, OK, I’ve got to go and continue to grow as a coach to get to that situation, as simple as that is.”

So when Stoops, who had previously interviewed Hamdan for his offensive coordinator opening in 2020, contacted him, the chance to call plays in the SEC was an opportunity Hamdan felt he could not pass up despite having just helped Boise State land former five-star quarterback Malachi Nelson from the transfer portal.

At Kentucky, Hamdan will almost triple his Boise State salary. His contract includes a $1.5 million buyout if he leaves for another coaching job before the end of the 2025 regular season, increasing the odds his nomadic coaching career will find at least some temporary stability.

But Hamdan knows there are no guarantees in coaching.

The offseason has been filled with conversation about whether the transfer portal and name, image and likeness negotiating are pushing more coaches to the NFL. Kentucky fans need no reminder of that possibility after watching Coen leave the program twice in three years for NFL opportunities.

“I just kind of view it if you’re willing to deal with things nobody else wants to deal with,” Hamdan said. “Not just deal with them, but try to excel at them and find ways and adjust if you will. That’s what you signed up for.

“I value the coaches that want to go to the NFL. I do. If they want to do that, that’s awesome. Maybe I’ll be like that one day, but right now I think there’s a unique situation in college. I’ve got to be able to adapt and adjust. That’s one of those prerequisites of signing up for this profession.”

Learning through adversity

The fact that it was Hamdan’s older brother, former NFL quarterback Gibran Hamdan, who delivered the tough love needed after the season at Arkansas State, was only fitting.

After all, no one else could relate to the example Hamdan saw when he looked at his parents.

The family was already in the United States on vacation when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. After their home and belongings were destroyed in the conflict that would be known as the Gulf War, the Hamdans decided to move permanently to the United States, eventually settling in Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C., when his father Latif, a nuclear engineer, began working for the U.S. government.

Hamdan has long held an appreciation for the challenge his parents faced at the time, but he gained new perspective on it while dealing with adversity in his coaching career. When Hamdan would call his father with a complaint about a job or a move, he realized he was roughly the same age his father was when he was working to move his young family and support it financially once the Hamdans had settled in a new country.

“A day doesn’t go by that I don’t know how blessed I am just to be in this amazing country and to have had this opportunity to stay focused in on my professional career and sticking to one thing,” Hamdan said. “And now being the best husband and father I can be.”

The work ethic needed to move across the country multiple times and persevere through entry level positions with little glamour was not the only effect Hamdan’s unique backstory had on his coaching career.

“I have never fit the norm ever since I was 7 years old,” he said. “The first time I felt normal, honestly, was a trip back to the Middle East. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ The McDonald’s, the sandwich place, these are all things my mom fed me when I was growing up. This is the music I listened to when I was a little kid.

“I think because of that, every single situation over the last 20 years has been probably like, ‘He doesn’t really look like us.’ … The only chance I had was if people felt like, ‘This guy is a good person, he works hard, he cares.’”

Hamdan appears to have met that goal and more.

Prior to his senior season at Boise State, when it looked like it might finally be his time to win the starting job, Hamdan’s teammates raved about the impact he had already made in the locker room.

It was Hamdan who organized a charity softball game for his teammates to raise money for a local youth organization. When Boise State was among the schools mentioned in a USA Today story about college athletes being pushed toward majors that would help them maintain their athletic eligibility, it was Hamdan who defended the school in a letter to the editor published by the Idaho Statesman.

“A really great human being that got the big picture,” Hawkins said. “Super smart, but a team guy. Super competitive, and a good player. … I just don’t think there’s any coach or player that ever came through there during his time that didn’t think the world of Bush.”

Hamdan ultimately lost the starting job at Boise State to redshirt freshman Kellen Moore, who would eventually break the FBS record for quarterback wins. Hamdan’s regret from that missed opportunity was clear in an Idaho Statesman story breaking down the decision, but with no free transfer rule at the time, Hamdan elected to stay at Boise State.

After losing the starting job as a senior, Hamdan predicted the experience would benefit him in the long run, a prediction that has come true in his coaching career.

A playing career characterized by staying has turned into a coaching career known for its many moves, but the ability Hamdan showed to win over a locker room in those early years at Boise State has remained.

“He’s a really funny guy,” said former Boise State running back George Holani, who split carries with star Ashton Jeanty last season on a Broncos offense that ranked 26th nationally in yards per game. “He’s able to tell a lot of jokes, make a whole room laugh and stuff like that. When it’s time to lock in and be serious, he’s on point with everything.”

The moves are not quite as easy as they used to be though.

For much of Hamdan’s career he was changing jobs without the consideration of moving a family with him. Now, he is married with three children, including two under the age of 4.

This is the moment Hamdan, 38, has worked for.

He has dreams of one day running his own program, but gaining full control of a Southeastern Conference offense is the reward for a coach who landed his first full-time coaching job at Maryland after building the courage to approach then Maryland offensive coordinator James Franklin, who he did not know, and Franklin’s wife at dinner during a 2010 coaching convention. It is the result of the hours he spent on an unprompted study of the most successful third down and red zone offenses during his stint as a student assistant for Hawkins at Colorado when he lived in Hawkins’ basement.

The chance to work with Hawkins, Petersen, Franklin, Quinn, Sarkisian, Harsin, Drinkwitz, Ralph Friedgen, Will Muschamp and a host of other high-level coaches has shaped the coach Hamdan has become. But it is still the example set by his father that might have the biggest impact on Hamdan’s path to Kentucky.

“There was no, ‘Well maybe I’ll get out of this profession; it’s hard,’” Hamdan said. “I just knew ultimately one day I’d have to have that conversation and tell my dad I got out of this profession because it was hard.

“I think the one thing I could never deal with in my life would be him calling and going, ‘Well, I’m glad I never made that decision.’”

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