Herb Hand hired to coach the OL
The Penn State assistant served alongside Gus Malzahn in 2007 and 2008 at Tulsa.
AUBURN | The Tigers' search for a new offensive line coach didn't take long.
It didn't even last a day.
Herb Hand, who has spent the past two seasons coaching Penn State's offensive line, on Monday agreed to join Auburn as an assistant coach. He replaces J.B. Grimes, who formally was hired by University of Cincinnati Monday morning.
Hand has 15 years of Bowl Subdivision experience at West Virginia, Tulsa, Vanderbilt and Penn State. His most important qualification? He spent two seasons as Tulsa's co-offensive coordinator with Malzahn, who was the Golden Hurricane's other offensive coordinator. The two became friends and remain close to this day.
“I’m excited to be teaming up with Coach Hand again after working together for two years at Tulsa where we were very successful offensively,” Malzahn said Monday. “He’s a wonderful person and coach, and we’re glad to welcome him to Auburn.”
Hand, 48, served as run-game coordinator at both Vanderbilt and Penn State under James Franklin. However, his coaching career closely followed Rich Rodriguez's for the better part of a decade. Hand spent two seasons as Rodriguez's defensive coordinator at Glenville (W. Va.) State before re-joining Rodriguez as an assistant coach at Clemson (where Rodriguez was offensive coordinator) and West Virginia, where Rodriguez served as the Mountaineers' head coach.