Little about college football is objective, linear or easy to define.

The only thing we can all agree upon is to disagree.

It is pretty simple to build a case one way or the other on many issues, including how you determine the national champion or the year’s most outstanding player.

University of Hawaii fans wish their program was part of those conversations. Instead, the most polarizing topic for UH is the same for most teams upon completion of a 3-9 season: the future of the head coach.

Much of the dialogue upon Norm Chow’s hiring a year ago this month and prior to the start of his first season recognized 2012 would be the beginning of a rebuilding project. What most didn’t realize is how extensive of one, and how painful for the fans.

As the Warriors were bludgeoned week after week during an eight-game losing streak, fans complained not as much about the losses as the lopsidedness of the scores.

Indeed, in many of its defeats — including seven of eight to fellow Mountain West Conference members — UH looked like it didn’t belong on the same field as the opponent.

In addition to being an extremely youthful team, shifting from the run-and-shoot to Chow’s offensive style was akin to trying to win spelling bees with kids more suited for the math bowl.

Now, here’s where that not-easy-to-define part comes in: UH won its last two games of the season, but they were at home against two of the three weakest opponents on the schedule. Actually, in all of FBS.

That makes it difficult to measure improvement, and creates context to latch onto for Chow’s supporters, as well as his critics.

The Warriors outscored UNLV and South Alabama a combined 71-17. Yay, the New Norm is winning!

But the Rebels and Jaguars both finished 2-11. Boo, Chow is still no fun!

CHOW KNOWS the end of the last game of the season doesn’t mean it’s vacation time.

"We have a tremendous amount of work to do; recruiting, getting stronger and making sure we finish strong in the classroom," he said after the 23-7 win over South Alabama on Saturday. "There are a lot of things we have to do and there are a lot of things we have to fix."

Perhaps you remember June Jones saying similar things after his 3-9 season in 2000. The joke at the stadium on Saturday was that Chow is a year ahead of Jones — the punch line of course being that Jones’ first team in 1999 famously turned around 0-12 from the previous year to 9-4. After 2000, Jones’ teams reeled off winning seasons six of the next seven years, culminating with the 2007 team that didn’t lose until the Sugar Bowl.

That’s part of why expectation levels are high and patience levels low, part of why Greg McMackin was sent packin’ just a season after a share of a WAC championship. Remember, college football is an environment where you can win a national championship and lose your job two seasons later, like Auburn’s Gene Chizik.

SOME BOOING from the stands accompanied the two running plays into the line that UH ended the first half with on Saturday.

But, then, as the Warriors ran off the field leading 16-0 they were applauded by many of the less than 22,000 in attendance. Perhaps they remembered UH’s second offensive play of the game, the creative trick that had quarterback Sean Schroeder drawing attention by feigning injury and Joey Iosefa passing to Billy Ray Stutzmann deep.

One gadget play doesn’t necessarily make for a successful game plan. But maybe there is something we can all agree upon: That was a bit of genius that helped put South Alabama on its heels. And it was fun.

But if you don’t like Chow, it was forgotten about as soon as he closed up the playbook to protect the win.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.