Sorry, I’m told that’s it. If you want blood, you’ve got it. But we’re fresh out of firings for now … check back again next year.
Some say jettisoning defensive coordinator Thom Kaumeyer and linebackers coach Tony Tuioti should just be a start, that after four wins and 20 losses in two seasons Norm Chow and everybody else in the quarry should also be packing. The arguments: Rebuilding the University of Hawaii football program is taking too long, was never necessary and/or will never succeed under Chow.
As compelling as those points may be, it still comes down to the boosters who helped put Chow in place not wanting him out. A buyout wouldn’t be as impossible as athletic director Ben Jay says it is, if boosters and sponsors pony up — like they did to hasten basketball coach Bob Nash’s departure in 2010.
That’s not happening, so someone else has to go. Make it look good, two guys. You can’t stand pat after 1-11.
Who better than coaches responsible for the defense? A group that trended worse as the season went along, allowing 59 points and nearly 800 yards its 11th game and UH’s 11th loss of the season, at Wyoming. It seems that’s when Kaumeyer’s fate was sealed; but people began having their doubts early last season, when Nevada pounded the Warriors for 69 points.
Of course I feel bad for these two men. If you know them, you probably do also. They are upstanding people.
You might feel they’re taking too much of the hit, that they are sacrificial lambs on a team with plenty of harmless sheep.
But this is the business they have chosen, and it’s nearly as brutal as Hyman Roth’s at times. It’s performance-based. And unfortunately that includes the performance of others, the young student-athletes they were charged with teaching and refining and building into an efficient unit.
If the Rainbow Warriors had stopped someone on third-and-long more often — or more consistently in any down-and-distance situation, maybe Kaumeyer’s firing wouldn’t have been necessary.
As for Tuioti, there’s a lot of public sentiment for him, partly because he’s a former Rainbow Warrior hero, a stalwart of the team that went from 0-12 in 1998 to 9-4 and a bowl game in 1999 — one of the few remaining connections to a happier past.
There are those who feel that cutting Tuioti loose is unfair and unnecessary and ask why. I wonder also. While it is true the linebackers did not perform well, were they worse than the other position groups?
Why was Tuioti coaching linebackers instead of defensive linemen, which is what he did under Greg McMackin, and the position he played.
"A great young coach and great recruiter," former UH player and assistant coach Rich Miano said of Tuioti. "(Chow is) getting people off the bus who weren’t in the right seat."
I’ve heard Kaumeyer was panned for being too cerebral and not being able to relate to the players. That doesn’t add up since I’m also told the overall team GPA is skyrocketing. The former DC, Dave Aranda, was brainy and he did OK … and he still is doing well, at Wisconsin.
Well, if it’s of any consolation to anyone, Kaumeyer and Tuioti technically were not fired. Their one-year contracts simply were not renewed.
And that makes you wonder what the quality of willing and available replacements will be.
Not everyone wants to jump aboard a program where the entire staff could be looking for work a year from now.
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Reach Star-Advertiser sports columnist Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com, his “Quick Reads” blog at staradvertiser.com and twitter.com/davereardon.
