Hawaii offensive coordinator Brian Smith entrusted with play calling

For guidance this past Saturday, Hawaii coach Nick Rolovich turned to the man upstairs.

From the coaches’ booth on Aloha Stadium’s third tier, associate head coach Brian Smith called all of the Rainbow Warriors’ offensive plays in a 42-40 victory over San Jose State.

In the usual arrangement, Rolovich calls the plays from the sideline with suggestions from Smith from the booth. On occasion, Rolovich will turn over play-calling duties to Smith. But on Saturday, it was decided to hand the offense to Smith while Rolovich handled the overall game management.

“I prep every game as if I’m calling it,” said Smith, who also is the offensive coordinator and running backs coach. “In this case I was, so I did.”

The Warriors amassed 509 yards. Second-year freshman Chevan Cordeiro, in his first start of the season, threw for three touchdowns and ran for another two. Miles Reed rushed for 124 yards, the first time he eclipsed the century mark since joining the Warriors in July 2017.

Smith said the play-calling was a collaborative effort built on years of trust. Smith and Rolovich were UH teammates and roommates in 2000 and 2001. When they were assistants on Greg McMackin’s staff, Rolovich called the plays from the sideline using information and observations that Smith provided from the booth.

After McMackin was forced into retirement following the 2011 season, Rolovich was the offensive coordinator at Nevada and Smith coached at Cal Lutheran and Occidental. “All experiences in coaching are going to strengthen your experiences,” Smith said. “Experience, good or bad, is going to help you grow as a person, as a coach. Doing our own thing for a few years helped us both learn in different ways.”

They were reunited in December 2015 soon after Rolovich was hired as head coach. Smith said they work well together because no matter who is calling the plays, the other can jump in with a suggestion “and it doesn’t affect our flow of the game.”

In the week leading to the San Jose State game, Rolovich monitored the quarterback situation intensively. On Friday, Rolovich opted to start Cordeiro ahead of Cole McDonald, who was the statistical leader in several Mountain West categories. Smith and Rolovich created a game plan to fit Cordeiro or McDonald.

“It’s probably because the decision wasn’t made until late in the week who the guy was going to be,” Smith said. “We couldn’t practice two separate game plans for the two different quarterbacks. We just run our offense. They have to execute our offense.”

Smith noted that both quarterbacks have different skill-sets.

“There are definitely things Chevan does better than Cole, and vice versa,” Smith said. “There are some concepts guys favor, that they have a little better understanding of. But you’re really just calling the offense based off how you’re attacking the defense. … Both guys have grown up so much in the offense that we’re comfortable calling everything with them. We have confidence both kids can execute.”