Ferd Lewis: Potential Hawaii football coach must pick between the place or the pay

How much do you want to be a college football head coach?

That might be a question confronting Brian Smith or Craig Stutzmann this weekend. Or, indeed, whomever University of Hawaii athletic director David Matlin decides to circle atop his list of candidates for the Rainbow Warriors vacant head coaching job.

Understand that the question isn’t: Do you want to be a head coach? But, rather, how much?

Because, depending upon whom Matlin ultimately offers the job to, it could come down to the quiz-show-like proposition of: Do you take what’s behind door No. 1 (the head coaching job) or choose Door No. 2 (the bigger bag of money)?

We’re guessing that with somebody with strong Hawaii ties, as is the case with Smith and Stutzmann, both UH alums, the prevailing choice would be Door No. 1.

But maybe not for everybody.

Smith and Stutzmann were among the current UH coaches sitting up front in Cougars gear Thursday at Nick Rolovich’s introductory press conference at Washington State. Both have offers to be the top or a leading offensive coach on Rolovich’s staff and also being presumed contenders for the UH head coaching job vacated by Rolovich.

And, yes, it is apparently possible to wear Wazzu crimson and gray one day in Pullman and then pull on the tapa and green the next week in Manoa. It is called enhancing your chances of having a place to land in the fast-paced offseason game of coaching musical chairs.

Which brings us back to the issue of choosing the position or the pay. The location or the lucre.

The average salary for an offensive coordinator at a public university in the Pac-12 last season was $680,891, and that figure is expected to rise. Interestingly, defensive coordinators averaged $731,398, so you might want to direct your kids to that side of the ball.

The Washington State situation was different than most schools because its head coach at the time, Mike Leach, was the highly hands-on offensive coordinator.

Meanwhile in Manoa, the last two head coaches, Norm Chow, with more than 35 years of college and pro experience, and Rolovich, had contracts starting out at $550,000 and $400,004 respectively. Rolovich eventually got it up to $600,004 last year, his fourth season, but that was coming off two bowl appearances.

So, it would take a significant leap for the new coach, if it is somebody without head coaching experience, to get close to even average Pac-12 coordinator money. And the Pac-12 lags behind some Power 5 conferences.

It is also worth noting that many Pac-12 assistant coaches, especially coordinators, have multi-year contracts. UH assistants have almost exclusively operated under annual deals.

In addition, Washington State has offered some of its assistants a generous array of bonuses beyond bowl game appearances. For example, payouts can be earned for a unit ranking in the top 40 in various statistical categories or getting to a conference championship game, incentives not extended to assistants at most non-Power 5 conference schools such as UH.

Being a top level assistant on a successful Pac-12 team can also be a quick resume builder for other more lucrative jobs moving up the coaching ladder.

But if your heart is set on being a head coach sooner rather than later and the place is initially more important than the pay, then the decision might not be a hard one.

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