GJ Kinne is a strong candidate for the Tulsa job, sources tell FootballScoop.
Kinne, who turns 34 on Dec. 1, is in his first season as the head coach at Incarnate Word, where he has the Cardinals in the FCS playoffs. UIW entered the field as a national seed, earning a first-round bye before hosting Furman on Saturday.
Kinne played quarterback at Tulsa after transferring in from Texas and finished with 9,472 yards and 81 touchdowns from 2009-11. After a 5-year professional career as a journeyman quarterback, the son of a Texas high school coach entered the profession in 2017 and has rapidly climbed the ladder since.
He spent 2017 as a graduate assistant at SMU, 2018 as an offensive analyst at Arkansas, 2019 working off-the-field for the Philadelphia Eagles, 2020 as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Hawaii, 2021 in the same role at UCF, and 2022 as the head coach at Incarnate Word.
If completed, Tulsa would represent Kinne's seventh job in seven seasons of coaching.
Among the coaches that Kinne has spent time under are Jeff Traylor, Todd Graham, Gus Malzahn, Chad Morris, Jake Spavital and Chip Kelly.
That's evident in the Cardinals' offensive numbers. UIW leads FCS in scoring (52.9 points per game) and passing efficiency (210.08) while ranking second in total offense (582.4 yards per game).
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