(Tempe, AZ) Hines Ward was fantastic as a player. He wants to do the same in the coaching world.
Kenny Dillingham has announced Ward as the Sun Devil wide receivers coach, with a nod to Ward’s desire to learn and develop into a top coach as a big factor.
“Anytime you hire somebody who’s been successful, you say, OK, do they want this?” Dillingham said Saturday night after the team’s practice. “Do they want the grind? Why do you want to work 100-hour weeks when you don’t have to? You watch him play the game, all he did was prove people wrong with his effort and physicality. That was his identity as a person. Then when he’s in your office and he says, ‘I want to prove (to) people that I can be the best at this,’ you can feel it. Any room he steps into, any family that feels that passion that I felt in that room, they’re going to want to play for him.”
Ward started his coaching career with the Steelers in 2017 and he was with the Jets as an offensive assistant in 2019 and 2020. He worked with Florida Atlantic in 2021.
“I wanted a guy who would come in and when he sat down, people looked at him and listened, instantly,” Dillingham said. “There is no doubt in my mind that he’s going to challenge those guys to get the best out of them every single day because that’s who he is in everything he does. … At the end of the day, every player is a reflection of their coach. So what the room’s going to look like is hopefully a reflection of him.”
The Georgia Bulldog and Pittsburgh Steeler star, and the MVP of Super Bowl XL, registered 3,031 yards from scrimmage with 16 touchdowns for Georgia. As a quarterback, he posted 918 yards with three touchdowns while completing 60 percent of his passes.
Ward was a third-round pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1998 NFL Draft, playing all 14 of his seasons there and earning four Pro Bowl trips. He won two Super Bowls with the franchise. In Super Bowl XL against the Seattle Seahawks, he posted five catches for 123 yards, including a 43-yard touchdown on the way to the MVP honors.
