The easiest thing to do right now is to sit at a keyboard and type the words "Fire Norm Chow." You’d have lots of company.

Also, with the University of Hawaii football team he’s coaching reeling at 0-5 this year and 3-14 since he took over for Greg McMackin after the 2011 season, you’d have a case. As UH soccer coach Pinsoom Tenzing said so colorfully when he was sent on his way after two consecutive losing seasons, "Heads have rolled for lesser indiscretions."

And don’t be fooled. Consistent losing is an unforgivable indiscretion in major college athletics.

But as UH has taught us, it can cost a lot of money to let a coach go, and there isn’t a whole lot of that sitting around the quarry anymore, if there ever was.

Chow’s five-year contract pays him a base annual salary of $550,000. If he is terminated without cause (while the college football world thinks losing too many games is "cause," the contract does not agree), he is to receive any pay owed him up to the fourth year, plus $200,000 of the fifth year.

That means if Chow were let go at the end of this season, UH would have to pay him $1,300,000 for future services unrendered. Within 30 days.

That would be paying a coach not to coach. Again.

And that $1.3 million is a big number for even the most disgruntled booster with the deepest pockets, or even a hui that would like a change. This is not Florida or USC. This is Hawaii, where the athletic department finances are so shaky upper campus had to provide it a $13 million bailout.

Now, unless every citizen of the state were to go outside and pluck a dollar bill from the money tree in the backyard and send it to UH, Chow will be here for a while.

I’m not ready to give up on him, because the talent fielded is better than last year’s (plus, see above, there’s no money). But while the team isn’t getting blown out as badly as in early 2012, there are legitimate fears of going 0-12.

I wasn’t going to bring this up again unless it became a problem, and it looks like it has: Losing the new offensive coordinator on the eve of fall camp means the Rainbow Warriors have been short an experienced coach all season. It shows. (Oh, by the way, he is getting paid by UH to not be here.)

Athletic director Ben Jay sees the games, and he hears the radio, sees the blogs and emails and letters, too. But on Sunday he said he is in full support of Chow, and is of the mind that the coach was handed a decaying program in need of massive rebuilding.

"You really need three or four years. Success may not come right away. It comes down to plays work because of execution and talent. That’s why other schools are successful," said Jay, who arrived at UH a year after Chow. "I believe in this coach. I believe in what we’re doing. We have to have patience. Execute better. That’s what I believe in. Everybody wants a short-term solution, but I’m looking for the long term."

At this point, Jay has no choice but patience. But fans do, and you can’t blame them when they see Chow’s vow of chasing championships more as chasing windmills.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783 or on Twitter as @dave_reardon.