The check had cleared for the down payment on a five-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot house in Windsor, Colo.
After relocating from Reno with Jay Norvell, who resigned as Nevada’s head football coach to accept the job at Colorado State, then-tight ends coach Timmy Chang decided to put down roots. After an extensive search, Chang and his wife Sherry found their dream home, which included a full basement and spacious backyard. Among their Windsor neighbors would be families of three coaches also relocating from Nevada to CSU. Chang wrote the down-payment check in January 2022.
And then Todd Graham resigned as Hawaii’s head coach, ending a tumultuous two-year tenure.
Chang notified then-UH athletic director David Matlin of his interest. Norvell called Matlin with an hour-long endorsement of Chang.
“Jay’s words mattered,” Matlin told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “But Timmy did great in the process.”
In January 2022, Matlin offered the job to Chang despite the former UH record-setting quarterback having never been a head coach.
Norvell told Chang: “Timmy, guys like me and you don’t get these kind of jobs. When they come, you take ’em.”
Chang said: “I take all (Norvell’s) words to heart. … I don’t get the job without Jay Norvell talking to Dave Matlin about my value at Nevada and what I was going to do at Colorado State. Jay told Dave Matlin what I was all about. That’s all incorporated in who we are together, and why I love the guy so much.”
Chang added: “With no experience, coming back home and taking this job, I knew I would be OK if I put my heart, my work ethic, my faith into it. I knew we’d find a way to where we stand right now.”
Chang also was able to back out of the home sale.
This week, the Warriors travel to Fort Collins, Colo., for what is fittingly designated as Colorado State’s homecoming game. It will the last meeting between the teams in the foreseeable future. CSU is leaving the Mountain West to join the rebuilding Pac-12 on July 1, 2026.
For the opposing head coaches, this is a matchup they would prefer not to occur. On Monday, Norvell told reporters he considered Chang as a “brother.”
“It’s one of those things, we don’t want to play each other,” Chang said. “You don’t want to play your brothers in this business.”
The two coaches did not know each other until after Norvell was hired as Nevada’s head coach in December 2016. Norvell then asked new offensive coordinator Matt Mumme to recommend a receivers coach. His father, Hal Mumme, widely regarded as the inventor of the Air Raid offense, suggested Chang.
The elder Mumme was the pass-game coordinator and Chang a graduate assistant at SMU in 2013 under then-Mustangs coach June Jones. As UH head coach, Jones had recruited, coached and mentored Chang. At the recommendation of Jones and both Mummes, Norvell hired Chang to coach the Wolf Pack’s inside receivers.
“I knew receiver play from the run-and-shoot background (at UH and Saint Louis School),” Chang said.
In 2017, Chang agreed to coach the tight ends while Eric Scott coached the inside receivers and wideouts. Matt Mumme, Norvell and Chang built an offense that employed one, two or three tight ends.
“I had never been in the Air Raid offense (prior to joining Nevada),” Chang said. “I ended up learning it inside and out. … I was able to help add the run-and-shoot concepts to the Air Raid.”
Chang also assisted in coaching special teams. He eventually worked with all six units. Chang incorporated lessons from his playing days with the Warriors. Back then, Jones made every player, regardless of position, attend special-teams meetings. The Warriors listened to special guest speakers Frank Gansz Sr. and Frank Gansz Jr., as well as special-teams coordinators Dennis McKnight and Tyson Helton.
“You try to become a master technician of fundamentals,” Chang said. “That’s blocking, tackling, leveraging the football.”
Chang taught those techniques to Nevada’s specialists. Now at UH, Chang often works with the special-teams units. He also made every player available to special-teams coordinator Thomas Sheffield.
Chang, whose Warriors are 5-2 overall and 2-1 in the Mountain West after three losing seasons to start his coaching career, credits Jones, Dan Morrison, Vinny Passas, Cal Lee, Ron Lee and Curt Newsome as his coaching mentors. Chang is most grateful to Norvell for giving him his first full-time Division I coaching job and helping him land his “dream job.”
“Jay is the big reason I get to be the coach I am today,” Chang said.
