UH football team needs a caretaker, like it did in ’08

Caretaker or long-term solution? When the University of Hawaii needed a new head football coach to replace June Jones in early 2008, the school went for both in selecting Greg McMackin to steer the state’s most prominent sports team.

Jones’ trusted defensive coordinator offered a sense of continuity — a key figure from a team that had just reached the apex of the program’s nearly 100-year history.

It was a good move in that sense … promoting a familiar face and respected assistant to head coach helped staunch the psychological bleeding from the departure of Jones and several other key players and assistants from the Sugar Bowl team.

But UH acted hastily and foolishly in handing McMackin — a first-time Division I head coach — a 5-year contract at $1.1 million per year with no provisions for buying him out before its completion … like, oh, in the event that his team put forth just one winning season in his first four years.

You shouldn’t give that kind of contract to anyone, unless you’re rolling in dough and expect to be for years to come. If anything, you give it to Jones to try to get him to remain at UH instead of bolting for SMU.

Though many of us didn’t see it at the time (yes, I admit it), the length of the contract and lack of a buyout clause bordered on lunacy. The money? OK, but only if we’re talking about the aforementioned long-term solution. A caretaker, a bridge hire, gets less.

If you own a home, whom do you pay more? The maintenance handyman who keeps things humming and repairs fixtures? Or the architect with the vision and proven competence to make the major renovations you desire?

It’s obvious now — as we expect an announcement as early as today but more likely Tuesday or later that McMackin will be relieved from his post — that he should’ve been offered a caretaker-type contract nearly four years ago.

Yes, this is hindsight at its finest and some serious Monday morning quarterbacking. Emphasis on "serious," and you’re smart, so you know why: UH can literally not afford a similar mistake now.

The first thing the powers-that-be must decide is who exactly IS the power — and please, no committees this time; it’s unnecessary and a waste of time. Preferably, the athletic director decides; it’s his job. Jim Donovan has a fondness for consensus-building, and sometimes that’s good. But in this case, not everyone needs to be on board; just the president and the Board of Regents. It should be his decision; if it isn’t, why is he there? And how is he going to function as the new coach’s boss?

Then the hard part. Getting the money together for a new long-term-solution coach. If this is going to take some time, you’d better go the caretaker route right now (for a year) and salvage what you can from recruiting this year and right the ship best you can.

Maybe Dick Tomey. Maybe Bob Wagner. Former UH head coaches who know their way around the field as well as downtown and might do it for little more than their aloha for the program and the state (although, granted, that could be a little tricky in Wagner’s case since he was fired, and also considering that he currently has a job he enjoys.)

It doesn’t hurt to ask.

As was the case in 2008, this looks like the time for a caretaker for UH football … just don’t give him the long-term-solution contract this time.

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