At the end of the 2024 football season, Hawaii head coach Timmy Chang went into a hurry-up mode to address key situations.
Starting quarterback Brayden Schager completed his NCAA eligibility, two other quarterbacks were entering the transfer portal, and quarterbacks coach Dan Morrison put in retirement papers on a 52-year coaching career.
Chang signed quarterbacks Jarrett “JJ” Nielsen and Luke Weaver to join Micah Alejado, set in motion plans to expand running backs coach Anthony Arceneaux’s duties, and reloaded with a “young gun.”
In promoting 26-year-old Cade Socha from offensive analyst to quarterbacks coach/pass-game coordinator, Chang was following a growing trend. Dave Canales, who was hired as the Carolina Panthers’ head coach last year, began his coaching ascent after meeting then-Seattle coach Pete Carroll at a football camp. Chang cited others who began their coaching careers as interns or analysts, such as University of Mississippi offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., who started as an 18-year-old quality control coach.
“These young guns,” Chang said, “are fast, up-and-coming, rising coaches. They get it. They understand relationships. They understand work ethic and adding value. And they’re hungry. Cade falls into that category. He’s a young gun, like Charlie Weis Jr. Cade is a hungry, young coach.”
Morrison, who also coached Chang in his first UH stint in the early 2000s, praised Socha as being “really good. He has energy. He’s going to be really good in that position. He has a good understanding of what Tim’s doing. They have the same background, so they’ll be on the same page with each other. I think his enthusiasm, his knowledge, his work ethic and his ability to relate to players is going to work out very well.”
The Warriors are expected to employ in-game coaching assignments similar to what was done in the 2024 finale, when Alejado threw for 469 yards and five touchdowns against New Mexico. Arceneaux, Socha and two analysts probably will be in the coaches’ booth sending observations to Chang, who will call the offensive plays from the sideline.
Chang said all the offensive coaches will have a role in crafting the game plan. Following Morrison’s lead, Socha also will incorporate input from the players, particularly the quarterbacks.
“We’re not playing the game, they are,” Socha said. “We’re trying to create 11 coaches on the field. They’re going to be part of the process, whether it’s naming a play. Dan always told them: ‘This is the run-and-shoot offense, but you’re going to make it your own.’ You have to make them involved and feel they have a value and a voice. I always thought that was important.”
In addition to his detailed coaching style, Socha offers critical analysis of situations, as well as a deep knowledge of trends and tactics. Morrison said Socha is a diligent note-taker, data-collector and processor.
Pick a day, any day. Socha takes hand-written notes during every meeting and lecture.
“I’m a big pen and paper guy,” said Socha, who then uploads the sheets to Rocketbook, a reusable smart notebook that prints a PDF and saves the information to a cloud service. The printed copies are placed in binders.
Socha’s notes include information on defensive coaches across the country. For upcoming games, he can cite the defensive coaches’ past strategies, pairing it with notes on how offenses attacked those schemes. While he is a diligent note-taker, Socha said, Morrison’s catalog was far more extensive.
“That motivated me,” Socha said. “It gets important when we’re getting into game planning and how we’re going to attack those coordinators, and what they’re trying to do schematically, and what we’re trying to take away. If we forget, we can always go back (to the binders). ‘We ran a certain concept like this two years ago and now it’s evolved and changed to this …’”
Socha’s passion for coaching is genetic. “I was born into a football family,” said Socha, whose father, Doug, is head coach at Division II Lenoir-Rhyne. “When I was young, people asked me: ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ I’d say, ‘I want to go to the NFL.’ Everybody laughed at me. But I said I wanted to go to the NFL to coach, and everybody understood.”
Socha earned three letters at Keiser University, where his father was head coach. His first year on a coaching staff was actually two jobs. During the pandemic, Keiser played during the 2020 fall semester. The University of San Diego, where he worked with the defensive line, had a six-game season in the spring of 2021. After earning a position as the University of Miami’s recruiting intern and offensive assistant in 2021, he learned of a graduate assistant’s position at Nevada. Chang was the Wolf Pack’s receivers coach. In 2016, when Doug Socha was a Buffalo Bills assistant coach, Chang earned a summer internship there. Nevada hired the younger Socha to be Chang’s graduate assistant.
After driving 40 hours from Miami to Reno, Socha recalled that when “I walked into that building, I was going to be a hard worker. I was going to help Timmy coach the receivers to the best of my ability.”
After the 2021 season, Colorado State hired Nevada head coach Jay Norvell. Chang and Socha also joined the CSU staff. A couple of weeks later, Chang was offered the UH head coaching job. Chang’s first hires were Socha and Matt Chon, who would serve as the Warriors’ chief of staff.
“It isn’t just a work relationship,” Socha said of entering his fifth year working with Chang. “It’s family to me. I look at him as a second father and also a mentor.”
