Hope Hired as Offensive Line Coach
March 05, 2002 | Football
March 5, 2002
Head football coach John L. Smith announced this afternoon that Danny Hope, a former Cardinal assistant under Howard Schnellenberger, will return to the University of Louisville as assistant head coach and offensive line coach.
Hope, who spent the last five seasons as the offensive line coach on Joe Tiller's staff at Purdue, replaces Art Valero as the assistant head coach and offensive line coach on Smith's staff. Valero, who had spent the last 12 years with Smith, is the tight ends coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The offensive line was a key factor in Purdue's success the last five seasons, allowing merely 104 sacks out of 2,624 passing attempts (one every 25.2 attempts). Meanwhile, six of Hope's offensive linemen have gone on to the National Football League: Mark Fischer and Jon Blackman in 1998, and Matt Light, Chukky Okobi, Brandon Gorin and Ian Allen in 2001.
Light was named first team All-American by Gannett News Service in 2000. He was the first Purdue offensive lineman to receive such acclaim since Karl Singer in 1965. Light also became the Boilermakers' first All-Big Ten First Team offensive lineman since Steve McKenzie and Dale Schwann in 1979. Additionally, Gene Mruczkowski was honorable mention all-conference in 2000.
Hope, who served in the same position at Wyoming during the 1996 season, spent 11 years under Schnellenberger as offensive line coach at Louisville (1985-94) and Oklahoma (1995). While at Louisville, he helped the Cardinals to a pair of postseason victories in the 1991 Sunkist Fiesta and 1993 Liberty bowls. He began his coaching career as an assistant at Manatee High School in Bradenton, Fla., from 1981 to 1984.
Hope was an offensive guard at Eastern Kentucky, playing on the 1979 Division I-AA national championship team and graduating in 1981 with a B.S. degree in psychology and a minor in health education.
A native of Gainesville, Fla., Hope (born Jan. 7, 1959) and his wife, Sally, have a son, Chaz.
