Ever humble, Chow is just what the doctors ordered

Yes, University of Hawaii football fans, there is a Santa Claus.

Yes, grinches, there is a buyout clause.

The honeymoon phase for new coach Norm Chow will last — for those of us who are reasonable, anyway — a couple of years while he attempts to rebuild the Warriors. For some, it will end after the first loss next fall. A few still want the marriage annulled immediately (but those probably didn’t hear Chow speak Thursday).

This time there is a prenup.

When UH hired Greg McMackin in 2008, its first mistake was a $1.1 million annual salary. Its second was no buyout provision in case things didn’t go well and the school wanted to bid aloha before the end of the five-year term of the deal.

After the verbal grand slam Chow belted at the Stan Sheriff Center, it is hard to imagine that part of the contract coming into play.

But it is there, just in case, a reduced-amount buyout if things aren’t progressing to UH’s satisfaction after the 2014 or 2015 season.

At $550,000 in 2012, the new coach will still be the highest paid state employee — among those still actually working for the state, that is, since McMackin gets $600,000 not to be the coach for the fifth year of his contract.

Chow’s salary looks like a bargain from here. He might be the most proven unproven entity of all-time, a winner of the Broyles Award for best college assistant coach, a key figure on national championship teams and a developer of Heisman Trophy winners.

It’s just one press conference. But Chow displayed the command presence, passion, vision, priorities and energy required for the job.

This man will sell tickets.

Once again, he’s a young 65. He’s fit, weighing in at 25 fewer pounds than the 245 he carried as an offensive lineman at Utah more than 40 years ago.

He gets everybody’s name right. Although, yes, you could quibble with Chow calling the team the Rainbow Warriors, or get your hopes up (don’t expect a one-coach campaign for Rainbows redux; Chow said that decision is "above his payscale.")

He happens to possess a Ph.D., in educational psychology. A lot of us didn’t know this about him, and that’s because of his humility; Chow isn’t one of those windbags who goes around calling himself "Doctor." He’s a highly educated football coach, and UH president M.R.C. Greenwood and selection committee member Peter Ho both said that helped him get the job.

"I felt like it was something I should do," said Chow, of continuing his education while coaching and raising a family. "And it allowed me to teach some classes at BYU and pick up a few extra bucks."

But he says this job is "absolutely" not about money.

It’s about building a staff that can recruit the islands and the mainland. It’s about melding the West Coast Offense and the North Shore Defense.

It’s about admitting he still has things to learn (coaching from the sideline, clock management on defense).

It’s about, first, graduating students, but also "chasing championships."

But mostly, it’s about coming home and finally getting his chance.

Norm Chow, the first locally born and raised UH head football coach in 35 years, said it all while leaving the podium: Mele Kalikimaka.

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