New defensive coordinator should be Chow’s priority

Once upon a not-so-distant time as an offensive coordinator, Norm Chow made a comfortable living picking on defensive coordinators.

How comfortable the ride gets for him in year three at the University of Hawaii will have a lot to do with how he picks who handles the defense for the Rainbow Warriors in 2014.

After a stumbling start, the ’Bows eventually solved many of their offensive issues this year, averaging 32.5 points per game over the final nine games.

That would — and should — have been enough to put them in the victory column well before the season finale, if not for a defense that yielded an average of 41.2 points per game over the same span. The defense finished 113th among 126 Football Bowl Subdivision teams in scoring defense (38.8), a major reason UH finished just 1-11.

Making a change at defensive coordinator, the position Thom Kaumeyer has held the past two seasons, figures to top Chow’s considerable offseason to-do list. UH’s most critical recruit for next season will be on who commands the defense.

For all that Kaumeyer devoted to the considerable task of running the UH defense — and he put his all into it — the situation demands change. For one thing, except for Northern Iowa, the schedule doesn’t get appreciably easier. Three of UH’s first four opponents next season are Washington, Oregon State and Colorado.

For another, UH needs to demonstrate to a skeptical ticket-buying public a reason for optimism in 2014. It needs the kind of change it can sell at the box office.

Firing the offensive coordinator isn’t an option because, well, UH has already done that. And, anyway, Chow retains a firm grip of the reins on that side of the ball and isn’t firing himself. Somebody may end up with the title of offensive coordinator and the desk that goes with it, but the offense will always be what Chow wants it to be.

Now, Chow needs to decide what he wants from the defense and who he will entrust to shape and coordinate it.

Not to mention who UH can afford. The position has taken up more than 20 percent of the approximately $1.1 million UH is said to devote to the salaries of the nine assistant coaches and there are limits to how much it can be enriched. 

Maybe, with some reshuffling of the current salary pool or a passing of the hat, UH can top the $250,000 level. Though, by prevailing FBS standards, that’s hardly an eye-popping figure.

Even position coaches at BCS schools surpass that and coordinators double and even quadruple it. Former Laie resident Kalani Sitake, for example, makes more at Utah than Chow’s $550,000, which is among the reasons Sitake didn’t accompany him here from Salt Lake City in the first place.

Somewhere out there at terms UH can afford is the answer to the ’Bows’ need for change.

They say that when you want to evaluate a defensive coordinator the first person you should talk to is an offensive coordinator. In UH’s case, that means the guy who also happens to be the head coach.

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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.