Dave Reardon: Hopefully, political intervention will bring clarity for Hawaii football program

New Year’s is supposed to be a time for renewed hope and optimism.

And that’s why I feel so much sympathy for everyone involved with the University of Hawaii football program right now, especially the hopeful fans with positive, if not always realistic, attitudes.

At this time of year, their vibe is often something like this, “OK, we had a (choose one: pretty good or pretty bad) season, but we’ve got reasons for hope for next season. (Insert names of best players returning) are going to be great and lead us to the Mountain West championship. (Insert name of coach) has done an excellent job of recruiting, and some of the freshmen will help us right away.”

There have been many years where Warriors fans could say those things, and they would be at least somewhat believable.

This is obviously not one of those years.

What do fans have to look forward to now?

They should be getting excited about incoming recruits and spring practice in a couple of months.

Instead, they’re dreading the transfer portal and what bad news might come next.

And there’s a state Senate “informational” hearing on Friday, where lawmakers will ask UH officials about why things have gone so sideways with coach Todd Graham, things about his contract and his relationship with players.

For example: Why, exactly, are so many players leaving?

I mistakenly thought more UH fans would welcome this development because many have been begging for accountability from the athletic department’s leadership on this issue.

But it has actually irritated and frustrated many of them even more.

The reason some give for that is that the Legislature doesn’t help UH athletics in times of crisis, such as the stadium situation where the school ended up quickly building its own place to play at on campus because fans would not be allowed at the old Aloha Stadium. (And then, as it turns out, fans weren’t allowed at the new on-campus stadium for the first half of the season, adding to the frustration for everyone.)

OK, I don’t expect much logic from devoted fans of sports teams — especially when they’re at this level of angst, for so many reasons.

But to be unhappy that lawmakers are paying attention now because from your perspective they didn’t pay enough attention before?

It boils down to this: coaches, athletic directors, politicians, anyone in authority … they are all targets — oftentimes fair targets — when things go wrong.

And yes, skepticism and questioning the motives of people in power is healthy.

Do politicians do this kind of thing to score points with the voting public? Sure they do.

But are they doing it at the expense of time they should be spending on more important issues, like the Red Hill water situation?

Well, I don’t think that’s what is happening here. Every elected official I know of, except maybe the sheriff of Mayberry, has to multi-task, and prioritize; spend a lot of time on this, a little bit of time on that. And they have staff to help them do so.

Some of the senators who organized Friday’s hearing are on the higher education committee. So, if there is a huge volume of incessant complaints about the way a UH employee who makes $800,000 a year from state resources is doing his job, including how he relates to student-athletes, this definitely falls under their purview.

Is clean water more important than a football team? Of course. But that doesn’t mean a hearing about what’s gone wrong at UH football — one of the state’s most high-profile institutions where a lot of state resources are at stake — is wasting time or micromanaging.

I’ve sat through two long public hearings when the UH athletic director was called out by lawmakers. Most of it was boring and going over stuff we already knew. At least this one will be online. And we’re all invited.

In a situation like now, when a significant segment of the public is clamoring for answers about alleged poor job performance by the most highly paid state employee, state lawmakers are doing the right thing in trying to get to the bottom of it.

It doesn’t make for a Happy New Year. But the sooner the problem is properly and thoroughly diagnosed, the sooner it can be addressed.