When the Bucs promoted former passing game coordinator Josh Grizzard to offensive coordinator, it left an unresolved question about if someone else would take over as pass game coordinator or if they would be layered into his duties as the Bucs’ play caller.

We found out that answer on Monday afternoon as Tom Pelissero from the NFL Network reported that the Bucs have hired Oregon State wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator Kefense Hynson to the passing game coordinator position with Tampa Bay.

At age 45, Hynson has coached football for over two decades all at the collegiate level. This will be his first opportunity to coach in the NFL. His most recent stop was with Oregon State where he coached from 2018 to 2024.

Kefense Hynson Coaching History

During his playing days Hynson played defensive back from 1999 to 2022 at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Willamette is a Division III college football school and Hynson stayed on as an assistant wide receivers coach in 2003 before going to Division II Quincy University as a defensive backs coach in 2004.

Bucs pass game coordinator Kefense Hynson – Photo by: USA Today

Hynson then began his trajectory to Division I college football for most of his coaching career. From 2004 to 2017 his coaching stops included Boise State, Minnesota State, Western Washington, Yale, Montana, Norfolk State and Hawaii. He’s been a position coach at running back, wide receiver and tight end, and also was a co-offensive coordinator and passing game coordinator several times.

The big break Hynson had was getting to Oregon State in 2018, where he’s spent his most amount of time as a coach all in the role of wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator. Early on his Oregon State coaching career, he helped wide receiver Isaiah Hodgins get tied for second most touchdowns in school history with 20 and also reached 2,322 receiving yards, putting him at seventh best out of anyone that played there.

The Beavers best season while Hynson was on the coaching staff was in 2022 when they went 10-3, defeated their rival Oregon and beat Florida in the Las Vegas Bowl. In 2023, Hynson became the interim head coach for their bowl game, losing to Notre Dame in the Sun Bowl. Despite having a down year in 2024 with a 5-7 record, Oregon State still managed to have a top 30 passing offense averaging 262.3 yards per game.

Kefense Hynson Has Brief History With Bucs’ OC Josh Grizzard

Bucs pass game coordinator Josh Grizzard – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

So how does Kefense Hynson end up making his NFL debut with the Bucs? What’s the connection? It goes through new offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard. When Hynson was at Yale from from 2009 to 2011 as the co-offensive coordinator and wide receiers coach, Grizzard was playing for Yale at the time as a defensive back. Since he was in charge of the receivers, he likely saw a lot of Grizzard during practice as the receivers and defensive backs went up against each other.

Grizzard became a student assistant coach with Yale in 2012, but he and Hynson did not coach together as Hynson departed for Montana that season. They do get to reunited in Tampa under very different circumstances.

There are certainly big shoes to fill for Grizzard and Hynson this upcoming season. The Bucs were third in overall yards on offense with 399.5 per game with Liam Coen last season. They were also third in passing yards per game at 250.4 and fourth in points per game at 29.5.

It will be the first time that Grizzard is calling plays in the NFL and Hynson’s first chance to coach at this level. To expect the Bucs to immediately pick up where they left off last season wouldn’t be fair, but it’s also very important that they get to somewhat in the relative area of success of what they did last year to continue the momentum they have built going into next season.

Pewter Report talked all about the big news with Grizzard as the new offensive coordinator in a recent Pewter Report Podcast. Check it out and subscribe to our YouTube channel.