When Norm Chow interviewed for the University of Hawaii head football coaching job in December, UH officials told him about the finances and the courtesy car and maybe even touched on the schedule.

What they perhaps didn’t linger over was that his first game could emerge as the toughest season opener in the school’s major-college history and the biggest challenge ever tossed at a debuting new head coach.

But that is the way it is shaping up.

UH has never stared up at more than a 35-point spread in a season opener or had a head coach step in as more than a 35-point underdog.

Oddsmakers, and those who interpret the spreads, say both are possibilities.

With 81 days until kickoff, the Warriors figure to be a 35- to 38.5-point underdog to Southern California by kickoff on Sept. 1 in the Coliseum, oddsmakers say.

"I thought it would be more," Chow deadpanned.

THE GOLDEN Nugget Race & Sports Book in Las Vegas put out the first betting lines of the college season Monday and the UH-USC game was not among the 111 contests for which spreads were posted.

It was the only game on USC’s 12-game schedule, including a 34-point spread against Colorado, that was not listed. Read into that what you will.

Jay Kornegay and the folks at the Las Vegas Hilton Sportsbook did some early research Monday and said they think the game will open with the Trojans as a "35- to 36-point" pick. "You take into consideration mostly the personnel they (both) have coming back and where the game is being played," Kornegay said.

Beyondthebets.com, a website that follows and forecasts betting lines, said UH could be as much as a 38.5-point underdog when most of the lines emerge next month. Beyondthebets.com wrote, "the new coach and quarterback combo is rarely a good one in college football and given the complexity of Norm Chow’s offense, we anticipate that Hawaii will undergo some early growing pains."

Now, nobody thought this was going to be as "close" as, say, the 21-point line for USC coach Lane Kiffin’s 2010 USC debut against the Warriors, a 49-36 Trojans victory.

But with quarterback Matt Barkley and safety T.J. McDonald passing up the NFL Draft to remain at USC, and with questions surrounding UH’s quarterback situation and offensive line, the odds have gotten steeper.

ODDSMAKERS have installed the Trojans as the favorites to win the national championship and made Barkley the top pick to take home the Heisman Trophy.

Not since then-defending national champion USC — with Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and 11 players who would be taken in the 2006 NFL Draft — opened the 2005 season here have the Warriors stared at such heavy odds in a season opener (an eventual 63-17 USC victory).

The biggest underdog in a UH coaching debut was Greg McMackin, whose 2008 team was a 35-point underdog against Tim Tebow and Florida in what became a 56-10 loss in the "swamp."

"It is going to be a tough year, no question," beyondthebets.com wrote. "But Chow, (we) think, is going to get them back on track before it is over."

For sure it can’t get much tougher.

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