University of Hawaii football team’s chief of staff, Trent Figg putting defense in place

There were days when Trent Figg’s to-do list appeared to be bottomless.

As the University of Hawaii football team’s chief of staff, Figg was in charge of the program’s day-to-day operations — from academics to practice schedule to travel logistics — and involved in recruiting, scouting, budget management, and meetings.

Three weeks ahead of today’s start to spring training, Figg was promoted to associate head coach/defense. Figg’s new role allows on-field coaching, direct-communication recruiting, and overseeing the secondary, with a focus on the safeties. While Zack Lucas will serve as director of operations, Figg will remain as liaison to university, academic and compliance officials.

“I maximized just about all of them,” Figg mused of the 24-hours-in-a-day limit.

But Figg, who used to handle head coach Todd Graham’s appointment schedule, has perfected an itinerary formula.

“I’ve got a notebook, and I’ve got a system that I use,” Figg said. “I’ve got a pen with four different colors of ink. I keep it very organized. It’s like the old saying: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. You’ve got to chop at it every day, and understand what the priority is that day. The to-do list is always going to be three pages long. You’ve got to understand what your priority is every day and make sure you get that done.”

For now, Figg welcomes the return to on-field coaching. Practices, video reviews and meetings? “I love it,” Figg said. “That’s why I coach. I love to be around young men, and impact young men, and have guys I’m directly responsible for. That’s something I love. That’s why I do it.”

Figg initially worked under Graham as an Arizona State graduate assistant in 2013. After that, Figg worked as defensive coordinator at William Jewell and Southern Arkansas, and as special teams coordinator/running backs coach at Missouri State. Figg and Graham remained in contact through the years. Soon after Graham was hired at UH in January 2020, Figg was offered the job as chief of staff. Although the position prohibited on-field coaching, Figg was quick to accept.

“I did it because I wanted to work with Coach Graham again,” Figg said. “I did it because of the respect I have for him. I know he’s going to win, and know I know he does things the right away. I wanted to be connected to him.”

When last year’s spring ball was canceled, Graham and Figg reviewed every player’s videos dating to high school games. They also pored through recruiting videos. Figg also helped plan the Warriors’ four road trips in 2020, including to the New Mexico Bowl.

“My goal was always to work hard enough to show him that I should be on the field,” Figg said. “When things came open here (with three recent coaching departures), he was able to move some things around and make it where I was on the field.”

Figg will help guide a unit that was one of the Warriors’ most productive in 2020. The secondary accounted for 45.9% of the tackles and 27.8% of the sacks. All the safeties are returning, including co-captains Khoury Bethley and Eugene Ford. Ford missed the final seven games after suffering a season-ending injury. Among the other returning safeties are Kai Kaneshiro, Quinton Frazier, Donovan Dalton and Sterlin Ortiz. The Warriors signed four safeties during the offseason, including power-five transfers Arnold “Chima” Azunna (Iowa State) and Hugh Nelson II (Georgia).

Because of the pandemic, last year’s spring training was canceled and training camp was delayed twice before being reduced to a few weeks. The Warriors ran only a portion of high-pressure schemes Graham had used at previous schools. Graham, who oversees the three phases, was the primary defensive play-caller in 2019. To create pressure, the Warriors blitzed from all angles, moved defensive backs into the box, and developed hybrid safety-linebacker positions for Bethley, Frazier and Ford.

“The defense will look faster because they’ll have another year in our scheme,” Figg said. “We’re looking forward to spring ball because last year we didn’t get spring training. Spring training is where you teach your fundamentals. You’ll see us look faster and more physical because our guys will play with more confidence. They’re going to have the knowledge they didn’t get last spring. When you get to fall camp, like we did this past year, it was like two weeks and then we played. There was no base knowledge. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. That’s how it was. Now we can really establish that base this spring and into next year’s fall camp.”