HONOLULU — Jordan Murray is aware.

He knows the list of notable players at his position in University of Hawaii history is brief in length and distant in time.

Murray, a four-year standout at the FCS level for Missouri State, also doesn’t care. The 6-foot-5, 240-pound tight end emerged during fall camp as one of the Rainbow Warriors’ most notable of 53 newcomers with his multiple highlight catches, and could be a frequent target of UH’s to-be-determined quarterback against Vanderbilt in Saturday’s sold-out season opener at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex.

There is little precedent for someone in his mold to step in and thrive with a UH program that has largely ignored or marginalized the tight end in the 21st century. 

“Coming here, that wasn’t in the back of my head at all,” Murray told Spectrum News before scout preparation for Vanderbilt got underway. “I think not just for me, but the tight end room here, we’re very versatile. We can do things in-line and we can also stretch the field in the passing game. I knew my skill set and I knew our tight ends’ skill set as a whole and how we can affect the game. I wasn’t necessarily too concerned about that.”

It is fortuitous for UH that he got to the islands, then stuck around through an immediate coaching change.

The Kansas City native had rarely strayed as far as the West Coast growing up, even at Missouri State, and had never ventured out to Hawaii. After some staff turnover with the Bears, he decided to speed up his undergraduate degree track by a semester and entered the transfer portal in December seeking a new experience in his super senior year of college football. He found a taker in Todd Graham, who employed tight ends during his two years at UH. Murray, who was an all-Missouri Valley Conference honorable mention after catching 26 balls for 351 yards and two touchdowns in 2021, committed and signed without so much as a visit.

However, within days of Murray’s arrival in the islands in January, Graham resigned amid a firestorm of criticism and, a week later, Timmy Chang was installed as the new coach. Yes, Timmy Chang, the former UH quarterback who put up ridiculous numbers in the run-and-shoot in the early 2000s – with nary a tight end to be seen.

But Murray was well schooled. He knew Chang served three years as tight ends coach at Nevada from 2018 to 2020 under head coach Jay Norvell.

“I knew it would be a good offense for a tight end,” Murray said.

Chang, whose coaching tutelage began under June Jones at SMU, told Spectrum News during fall camp that Nevada was where his appreciation for the multi-purpose position blossomed.

Cole Turner emerged as a force during Chang’s time in Reno, earning first- and second-team Mountain West honors, respectively, in 2020 and 2021. He caught 19 touchdowns over those two years, and had a career-high 175-yard game against Hawaii as a senior. Turner was taken by the Washington Commanders in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL Draft.

“When I was playing, I loved throwing to Chad Owens, Britton Komine and Gerald Welch and Channon Harris and those guys,” Chang said. “But also, when you have a big target that can run, it adds a lot and helps us out.”

He was grateful that Murray elected to stick it out through the transition to a new staff, especially after the new coach witnessed him routinely reel in acrobatic catches against the UH defense in 1-on-1 and full team settings alike.

Chang rated Murray as “right up there with the top ones in the conference,” among tight ends. “I’ve coached good ones at Nevada and he’s right up there and has potential. He going to keep coming along and we expect him to make plays this year.”

At Hawaii – a program in need of a broad infusion of playmakers on the heels of an offseason talent exodus – it’s been a while since a tight end fit that bill.

Bluntly put, UH has never had an all-conference first-team tight end, and only a few others have merited secondary recognition. The school has had only one receive any postseason award in a decade in the Mountain West; Clark Evans was an honorable mention in 2013.

In the old Western Athletic Conference, the most notable run of success for tight ends came in the Dick Tomey era of the 1980s. Dave Barbour, Jim Mills and Ron Hall got second-team honors in 1981, 1982 and 1986, respectively.

Hall went on to have a productive nine-year pro career primarily with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as UH's only tight end contribution to the NFL in program history. Mills had a brief NFL career as an offensive lineman and went on be inducted in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame at that position.

As somewhat of an "a hui hou" for UH tight ends, Gary Ellison received some All-WAC votes for UH in 1997 under Fred vonAppen. The arrival of a new era was nigh and Ellison's like would not be seen for some time.

Upon Jones' arrival in 1999 and on the heels of an infamous winless season, UH eschewed bulky pass catchers in Mouse Davis' nimble run-and-shoot offense, opting to go four- or five-wide. To boot, Jones repurposed tight end Adrian Klemm into a first-team All-WAC offensive tackle who was drafted by the New England Patriots, with whom Klemm won three Super Bowls as a lineman.

The run-and-shoot system produced gaudy numbers – no more so than in the Colt Brennan-led years of 2006 and 2007 – and remained in place until Norm Chow took over in 2012. After several years of sputtering power offenses that never caught on, UH revived the run-and-shoot under Nick Rolovich in 2019.

Todd Graham brought tight ends back in 2020 in his “run and gun” offense, to mixed results. Last year, Caleb Phillips, a former Stanford linebacker, was UH’s starting tight end, and he grabbed 17 passes for 89 yards and two touchdowns.

Phillips is back and is listed as the co-starting tight end with Murray.

New offensive coordinator Ian Shoemaker has refused to put a label on UH's new offense as a means to make opposing defensive coodinators' lives more difficult. Shoemaker said there will be times Murray and Phillips share the field in UH’s scheme – with the possibility of a third and even fourth tight end. Senior Kamuela Borden, sophomore Greyson Morgan, redshirt freshman Landon Sims and freshman Devon Tauaefa are UH's others at the position.

Murray in particular is versatile in that he can line up at receiver, set an edge, add a gap to the run game or be an extra body in pass protection.

“If we just go out there with four receivers, there’s some limiting things that the defense has to prepare for,” Shoemaker said. “They don’t have to prepare for the extra gap, the extra guy in protection. So, I want them to think about everything. Every blade of grass from sideline to sideline, pylon to pylon, they have to defend every blade of grass, every snap of the game.”

So far, Murray's been equally at ease with his new coaching staff and his emerging role. He “dunked” over Shoemaker and the crossbar of the Ching Complex uprights at the close of fall camp.

“Just the best relationship I’ve had with any of my coaches, as far as on and off the field,” Murray said. “They do a great job taking care of us and it’s everything I could’ve asked for.”

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.