'One of my closest friends': Hawaii football coach Timmy Chang, CSU's Jay Norvell hold special bond

Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Emory and Henry College.

Yeah, me neither.

That’s the obscure college football outpost where Timmy Chang was working as an assistant in 2016 when he received a call from a coach he had never met.

It was Jay Norvell, who wanted Chang to join his staff at Nevada.

The pair flourished together on and off the field. Nevada quickly became an upper-tier Mountain West program while Chang had a chance to show off his coaching ability on a much bigger stage — no offense to our friends at Emory and Henry.

Flash-forward to this week and Norvell and Chang will go head-to-head as head coaches when the first-year Colorado State coach Norvell faces Chang, Hawaii’s first-year coach.

“You never like playing against your friends, but if you do that means everybody has a job and that’s a good thing,” Norvell said with a laugh. “Timmy Chang is one of my closest friends. Incredible person, great family. Really happy for his opportunity to become the head coach at Hawaii.”

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Chang is a Hawaii legend. He grew up there and set the NCAA's all-time passing (17,072) and total offense (16,910) records as a QB at Hawaii in the early 2000s.

He served as a receivers and tight ends coach for Norvell at Nevada. Chang was also a CSU assistant for about a month.

Chang joined Norvell after CSU hired him and was set to be the receivers coach. Then things fell apart with Todd Graham and Hawaii, leading to an unusual January coaching search.

It had to be Chang.

“There’s nobody that understands that program and the island like Timmy does,” Norvell said. “I just thought it was a no-brainer. I picked up the phone and called the AD myself and told him that there’s only one guy he needed to hire for that job. I just think Timmy’s such a great leader, really bright guy.”

Norvell said one of his mentors — former Iowa coach Hayden Fry — told Norvell to hire assistants who wanted to be head coaches because they work the hardest. Fry took great pride in his coaching tree and now Norvell does, too.

Norvell says he thinks several of his CSU assistants are future head coaches and now Chang is the first branch of his coaching tree.

It’s a safe bet that the two coaches will share a hug before the game and maybe take a quick minute to reflect on their journey.

“Personally, I’m in a debt to that man for the rest of my life,” Chang told Spectrum Sports this week. “He took me from a D-III coordinator and put me on his staff. He allowed me to represent him and his family and the program. He taught me so many lessons … I owe everything to that guy.”

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on Twitter and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Hawaii football coach Timmy Chang and CSU's Jay Norvell hold special bond