This month, the head coach position for the University of Hawaii football team switched from Gregg McMackin (aka Coach Mack) to Norm Chow!
1) Coach Mack
Coach Mack was hired as the head coach back in January 2008.
Previous coach June Jones left UH for Southern Methodist University (SMU)
Jones was the coach from 1999-2007. Back in 1999, Jones took an almost dying program to greatness! It was followed by many great teams, ending with the 2007 team which was undefeated during the regular season, but lost the Sugar Bowl!
For more on June Jones, check out
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2008/01/end-of-june-jones-era-uh.html
When Jones left, the people wanted some continuity! They wanted someone who already know Jones' system, knew the players, and just continue the success the team was having!
Coach Mack just happened to be 2nd in command, being the team's defensive coordinator!
He had previous success in other places including college (Miami, Texas Tech) and NFL (San Francisco, Seattle)
He also seemed more media-friendly than June Jones who usually sounded grumpy in interviews. (though people who do know Jones say he's a nice guy)
What was not to like about Coach Mack?
Being that Jones (who was paid $800,000 at UH) left for SMU's $2million position, we better pay Coach Mack some big money too!
Coach Mack got a contract for $1.1 million annually for the following 5 years.
2008 was a rebuilding season for UH, being that Jones as well as many 2007 offense stars were no longer there! But the team had a winning season (7-6) but lost the bowl game to Notre Dame!
The following summer, at a press conference, Coach Mack taunted Notre Dame's chant as a "faggot dance" then ask the reporters to not report what he just said! It all went downhill from there!
(for more on that issue, check out:
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2009/08/coach-mack-controversy.html
While no wanted to admit it, the issue was a distraction for the 2009 season. Also, the QB Gregg Alexander had a season-ending injury, forcing Bryant Moniz to be the starter! The season ended with a 6-7 reason. An average record, with no bowl game!
2010 was much, much better! Bryant Moniz showed some serious improvement! The receivers Greg Salas and Kealoha Pilares were on a roll! So was running back Alex Green! The team shared the WAC title with Boise State and Nevada! The team was 10-4, and played the Hawaii Bowl against Tulsa. Unfortunately, Tulsa was the most under-rated team of the year, and we lost!
2011 expected great things. Sure, offense lost Salas, Pilares and Green! But this was to be Moniz's senior season! Plus, the defense had some great returning starters like Corey Paredes, Aaron Brown, Richard Toress, Vaugh Meatoga and Kaniela Tuipolotu!
However, the 2011 started with some serious distractions with Aaron Brown and Darius Bright getting arrested and suspended over a bar fight!
That didn't stop the team from winning the opening game against Colorado! Little did we know, that Colorado would go on to have an extremely junk season!
We lost to Washington ( a very good team). That was expected!
But we also lost to junk teams like UNLV and San Jose State! We also lost to Utah State! Sure, Utah State was better than usual this year! But those 3 loses really PISSED OFF many UH fans!
We got lucky against Idaho, which missed their last minute field goal!
Those things added up! People were ANGRY!
Apathy set in!
It got to the point when I was at Varsity Bar to watch Hawaii play Fresno State ( a usually heated rivalry that nobody wanted to miss), there were more patrons watching the mainland games on TV instead!
That in itself is an insult to the UH program! Especially in years past, when bars were filled with UH fans when they were playing LESSER KNOWN OPPONENTS!
(and we lost that game to a junker-than-usual Fresno! How in the hell????? We could've tied that game with a field goal and go into over-time! But noooooo, they tried to make a touchdown from 40 yards with seconds left!)
THe following week, UH beat a junk Tulane team. 1 more win and we could've at least barely make it a winning season.
But the next opponent was BYU! That used to be the hated rivals back in 1980s-90s! We haven't played them since 2002, so that was supposed to be exciting!
UH did fine in the 1st half of the game! In the 2nd half of the game, UH fell apart! Dropped balls and our QBs taking too many sacks! Season over, no bowl game!
To add insult to injury, the stadium was only about 60% full! Only 60% ? In the past, games against BYU used to FILL THE ALOHA STADIUM!
Apathy had gone too far!
UH fans could no longer take it!
Fans not showing up to the stadium, fans angry at the losing team, fans angry that the top local players choosing other college teams ............
........ and fans angry that Coach Mack was making about a $1 million but not only losing, but losing to crappy teams like UNLV and San Jose State!
[add to this: the hard economic times, when universities are cutting budgets. There is a lower tolerance for paying big money to football coaches in general, but more so when they're not living up to expectations]
Jim Donovan , the UH Athletic Director, had to do something!
But he also didn't want to look like some kind of bad guy that enjoys firing people!
So, there was the press conference announcing the retirement of Coach Mack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x_Oxf67xTE
2) Transition
But then what?
The UH football coaching job isn't like all other college coaching jobs!
Sure, you still got to coach the players into becoming winners! You also got to make sure the players are taking care of academics AND not acting irresponsibly out in the community!
But in Hawaii, you're 2,500 miles away from everyone else! You can't just drive to the next state! You can't even drive to the next island!
Also, Hawaii is culturally different from the other states! Not anyone can fit in easily! You don't have to be from Hawaii to fit in, but you have to be culturally flexible if you're not! June Jones and Coach Mack were good at that! But other mainlanders have a more difficult time with adjusting to Hawaii!
Hawaii does have a great population for finding college football players! That's the good news for UH!
Bad news for UH? Many other college football teams want those players too!
And just like anywhere else, not every high school athlete want to play for their local college! Some want to play somewhere else!
UH also tries to recruit players from other places! Problem is ...... those other places are 2,500+ miles away! Hawaii might sound like fun, but not every player from the continental US wants to go so far away from their families while playing college football!
So UH had to find someone who can coach football, recruit local players AND recruit mainland players!
Not so many people can do that!
Rich Miano, a former assistant with June Jones and Coach Mack, was one candidate for the head coaching position! He was a very charismatic guy who was popular in the community! He had NFL playing experience! Problem was ......... he was coaching under Coach Mack and many fans wanted someone different!
The other names being spread around were Duane Akina and Norm Chow! Both grew up in Hawaii, went to Punahou, then played & coached at mainland colleges!
Akina played college football at Washington and was a defensive coach at the very successful University of Texas program!
But Chow got the job
3) Norm Chow
Norm Chow is now the new head UH football coach!
Here's the press conference!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee1xoie-f4c&feature=share
I was surprised to see Chow having such a relaxed, funny personality! The reason why I said that, because before, when I saw him on TV, he seemed so serious!
Anyways, it's great to see Norm Chow is now the head coach, after so many years on the continental US!
Chow grow up in Palolo, and went to Punahou!
But he left the islands to play college football at Utah! He did return to the islands to teach & coach at Waialua High School back in the early 1970's.
But afterwards, Chow spent the next few years on the continental US! He spend 27 years as an assistant coach at BYU, which was once UH's most hated rival!
Afterwards, he spent a few years as an offensive coordinator at North Carolina State, Southern California, UCLA, and Utah! He even spent a few years coaching in the NFL, with the Tennessee Titans.
During those years, he was responsible for the success of many great players like Jim McMahon, Steve Young, Ty Detmer, Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, Phillip Rivers, Reggie Bush, Vince Young and many others!
His offense style will different from the ones used by June Jones and Coach Mack! Jones & Mack used the "run &shoot" with emphasize lots of passing, using 4 recievers and 1 running back! Chow's pro-style still emphasizes the passing game, but uses 2 running backs, 1 tight end and 3 receivers!
I did enjoy certain parts of the "run & shoot" especially since it highlighted some smaller players that can dodge tackles like Chad Owens and Davone Bess! But too much emphasis on "run & shoot" meant not having a Tight-End (TE) or a Full-Back (FB) on the field! Those tend to be big guys that can move around! They can run or catch the ball! But when they don't have the ball, they can provide extra protection for their quarterback! UH lost too many games without having such guys on the field!
Also, because UH's version of "run & shoot" offense didn't have TEs or FBs, that hurt our defense too! It left the defense UNPREPARED against opponents that used TEs and FBs!
I know Norm Chow is going to fix that! He should able to implement such systems, since he's done it so many times before!
Sure, Norm Chow might not have the easy access to California players like he did at USC and UCLA! But his system is designed to suceed with the many players we can get from Kahuku, Kamehameha and similar schools, as well as from American Samoa! He could still get some players from California, Utah, Texas and other places, though it will be more challenging to do so than from his previous colleges!
But I think Norm Chow can do it! Times will be challenging, but I see great things ahead for UH! I think UH can finally the gain the kind of success Boise State, Texas Christian, and yes ...... Utah and BYU!
Norm Chow .... WELCOME HOME
4) Our other rival - Fresno State
I usually view Fresno State as the enemy!
I viewed their previous coach Pat Hill as the Leader Of The Enemy for the last 15 years!
Sure, he might've beaten us this year (and got Coach Mack into retirement) but his teams were also declining the past few years.
And like Coach Mack, Pat Hill was let go from the university that he loved!
Like Coach Mack's press conference, Pat Hill had a press conference after he got fired! Even though what he experienced could make any person angry & bitter, Pat Hill handled the situation with honor and class!
That is why I just want to end this blog post with a link to the article & video on his press conference!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee1xoie-f4c&feature=share
While I never wanted Pat Hill to feel happy after a game against UH, I do have to honor everything he said in that press conference! I will miss seeing him in the opponent's sidelines next year!
