From the podium where his predecessors had offered up Lion King references or pledges to “chase championships,” newly installed University of Hawaii football coach Todd Graham gripped the lectern, stared straight ahead and quickly cut to the chase in his introductory press conference.
“We’ll be a program about winning championships,” Graham declared.
Then, just to make sure the overflow crowd in the room got the message, Graham invoked “championship” references in some form at least nine more times before departing the building.
“A lot of times when you go through transitions you have to figure out how to win,” Graham said. “The next step here is to win the Mountain West championship. So that’s what I’m excited about,” he said, before being drowned out by applause.
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Whether he can deliver the school’s first MWC title during the life of his five-year, $3.96 million contract remains to be seen, of course. But, at least, there is no doubting where the bar has been set just over six weeks after UH’s inaugural MWC title game appearance, a 31-10 clobbering at Boise State.
Not that Graham, 55, lacked for championship incentive coming off a two-year layoff from coaching that he characterized as, “probably the greatest learning experience of my life.” But, his just-signed contract also contained a provision for a $100,000 bonus for winning a conference championship. That the amount was $20,000 higher than the same clause of just-departed predecessor’s contract, was testament to the premium the administration is also placing on it and the investment in him.
As the man who hired Graham, athletic director David Matlin, forcefully put it in introducing his new coach, “This football team is not broken. This football team is just getting started.” UH President David Lassner, sitting in the front row, nodded.
“Winning 10 football games is pretty hard to do,” Graham said. “What they accomplished (in 2019) is pretty amazing. And, obviously, we have unfinished business. That’s to go win that championship.”
The day was Graham’s first opportunity to kick the tires on the fifth college head coaching job of a career that began at Poteet (Texas) High 32 years ago. He walked through the UH athletic complex, met his team and said he planned to talk to recruits, those already pledged and those being coveted, as well as meet the remaining assistant coaches and quickly begin assembling his own staff.
None of what he saw or heard appeared to lessen his enthusiasm for the task. He praised the players he met and an offensive, four-wide framework that he says he will retain in some form.
“I like the roster,” Graham said, describing the players he met as “impressive” and said, “You know, I think we’ve got things in place that we can do things we talked about. Obviously, we can improve, but I like the roster. I’ve never been in a meeting … where I’ve been more impressed than (I was) with the young men this morning. They’ve done some hard work.”
Graham said, “The success here has already been designed. There is a design to be successful here. And, I can tell you that I like it.”
He would add, “We’ve just won 10 games, so why would you come in and completely change what we’re doing?”
Graham pledged a lot of hard work to come, both on his part and that of those he described as, “our players” in order to “build upon the things we’ve done. What I want to be doing is winning a Mountain West championship.”
That would be the enduring message, one that echoed throughout his first day.
