Rolo’s year in review
OK, OK. We feel your pain. Your neighbor stole your newspaper. This is a holiday and you can’t read the paper at the office. You can’t log on because your spouse is signed on to the Star-Advertiser site. We sat down with Rolo last week, and this is what he shared in today’s Star-Advertiser.
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The University of Hawaii football team broke even in 2016 and added the Hawaii Bowl trophy to its collection, but Nick Rolovich was hardly satisfied with his first season as head coach.
“I think the 7-7 (record), the bowl win, that was a big step, but that’s nowhere near where we want to be consistently,” Rolovich said. “I’m not going to sit back and say 7-7, with a bowl win, is OK.”
Rolovich was particularly peeved at the loss against UNLV before 28,729 fans, the most for a home game this season. The Rainbow Warriors averaged 18,948 for the final three regular-season home games.
“We had a great crowd there, and we let them get away,” Rolovich said. “However you want to play it, we lost the game at a critical moment (in the season), when we had the heartbeat of the island in Aloha Stadium, and it got away from us. That’s disappointing, because it is about the players and the wins and losses, but it’s also about the community coming together. And that’s proven to be harder than I thought it would be.”
Rolovich said he will spend the next couple of weeks evaluating the program.
“I’ll look at everybody’s performance,” Rolovich said. “Video, SID (sports information director), trainers, doctors, academics, Na Koa, position coaches, GAs (graduate assistants), facilities and the weight room all have to be evaluated, and honestly. I like a lot of people, but this is about Hawaii football. If they can get better, I want it to get better.”
He also plans to binge-watch the 2016 telecasts of UH games.
“I’m going to go through and watch the whole season on TV and see how I’m perceived or how I’m being portrayed and how I’m acting,” Rolovich said. “On the game film, you don’t see any of that. And I don’t have time to watch the TV game during the year. The same thing for the coach’s show. I want to go through and critique that. I watched the first couple of those, but I have about 15 of them taped, and I’ll start watching those and see how I can do better in those areas, too.”
Even during this dead period in recruiting – the “silly season,” in football parlance — Rolovich was in his office at dawn. He took time to chat with the Star-Advertiser.
Offensive play calling
Rolovich was an offensive coordinator at UH and then Nevada before being hired as the Warriors’ head coach. Last spring, Rolovich named run-game coordinator Brian Smith as the offensive coordinator.
“If I had taken the offense this year, we would not have been as good because of how many times I got pulled away,” Rolovich said. “I had a feeling that would happen. We don’t have the 100-person staff that can do all the other stuff. There’s stuff in the Group of Five, or whatever you want to call it, where the head coach has to take on a greater role. That doesn’t bother me. That’s just the reality.”
Delegation comes slowly
Rolovich said he is learning to delegate.
“Just being a year into it, I was always ready for the next thing to really jump on,” Rolovich said. “Now I feel I can prioritize better and just take a step back. Jason (Cvercko, the director of recruiting and retention) and Lois (Manin, director of operations) have been in their jobs a year and can take care of a lot of things.
Something Eric (Okasaki, the head trainer) and Al (Ginoza, the equipment manager) told me: ‘You can’t do everything. You can’t be involved in everything. You’ve got to trust people to take care of things.’ Maybe I had a hand in everything, but I wanted a hand in everything. It’s organizing and prioritizing a little better.”
Learning to say no
He said he probably will alter his approach.
“Too hesitant at times, too wishy-washy at times,” Rolovich said of the past year. “Part of that is just me, maybe, talking out loud and bouncing the ball back and forth. … I think I need to say no to more people, and I plan on it. But I want people to be able to talk to me honestly.”
Bowl win not enough
Rolovich insisted the Warriors can’t rest on their 52-35 victory in the Hawaii Bowl.
“The numbers are the numbers,” Rolovich said. “When you’re 100th in the nation in certain categories, that’s not good enough. Now the bowl victory was great for Hawaii. It was great for this team. But this season needs to be judged from top to bottom, not on the last game. … I count them all. You have to look at every snap, every detail and preparation. I think there’s more than enough for us to do better next year.
“I’d like to see us be better on third down on both sides of the ball. I would not like to be in the negative turnover for the season as a team. I’m glad we got a defensive touchdown the last game, but it’s OK if they score more. (Defensive players) need to think that way. They need to think turnovers, takeaways. It doesn’t just happen. They envision it. They dream of getting the pick-six, and that makes it more likely to happen.
“We fumbled 20 times this year, that’s not good. Our interceptions started to decline, which was good. If you look at the 15 interceptions we threw, I bet all of them are avoidable. There wasn’t, I don’t think, a Hail Mary interception, that you can say, ‘Oh, throw that one out.’ They’re all avoidable.
“Penalties are (not good). We need to continue to up our football IQ and realize that many of those are avoidable, also. I think we got better from the year before with post-snap penalties. But any unsportsmanlike is ridiculous, I think. Those are selfish penalties We had too many false starts. Linemen downfield. That’s part of the product of the R-P-O (run-pass-option) game. We have ways we should have lessened those. The awareness of our team is not great.”
Keeping it fun
Rolovich was fun and unique this season, staging a water-balloon fight among coaches and players, wearing a hunting knife in a game against Nevada, and giving each player a Capri Sun symbolic of bringing the “juice” to the game.
“I learned the last time I was here not to read the blogs, not to read the message boards, because that influenced the way I coached,” Rolovich said. “I think if I make every decision in my day with the best interest of my family and this football program at the forefront, it doesn’t matter. I think that’s where (athletic director) Dave Matlin comes in, if he doesn’t like something I do, like the knife. He asked me not to bring another weapon on the field. I get it. I understand it. It was something for our players. Now they know, but they thought I was all full of (it) when I first got here and I told them, ‘Guys, I’m going to do some crazy, stupid (stuff). Let me do it. It’s not because I want people to look at me. I want people to talk about Hawaii football. And you guys just go out and play.’ I said, ‘Don’t read what I said in the media, you concentrate on playing, I’ll get people talking about us as much as I can. And as long as you continue doing your job on the field, they’ll continue to talk about us.’
“You can’t force any of that. And poor Lois. It’s spontaneous creativity. It’s not like I planned the knife for months. I planned the water-balloon fight for years. But the knife was something, ‘all right, I’m bringing it today.’ The juice box? Poor Lois. We were on the road and I said we need juice boxes. She’s gotta go find juice boxes. Most of those things are pertinent to our situation and what’s going on.”
Learning from the past
Rolovich tries to relate his playing experience under UH head coach June Jones, when he won the starting quarterback’s job in 2000, lost it two games later, and regained it in a record-setting 2001 after Timmy Chang suffered a season-ending injury.
“I gave up the starting job,” Rolovich said. “I did it. I was mad at myself. I would do exactly what June did. To be honest with you, in the era of social media and everyone’s a paparazzi, if I was doing now what I was doing then, it would have happened sooner. I’m just really good at not getting caught. It’s not something I’m proud of. I’m very fortunate I didn’t get hurt. I didn’t do anything really stupid or get in trouble for it. I wasn’t an angel. I’m still not an angel. I don’t think many are. I think there’s a time when you need to wake up. And Coach Jones woke me up. He said, ‘Your dream’s over. You’ve got to earn it back.’ I was lucky I got the opportunity to. (If not), I’m not sitting here. I’m probably sitting in (Fire) Station 2 in (San Francisco’s) Chinatown, with my feet up, seeing what we’re going to cook for dinner. That’s where I was going. I knew I didn’t want to leave the game.”
Accepting adversity
Rolovich also learned about conquering adversity when he was not retained after Greg McMackin was released as UH head coach following the 2011 season.
“Though I’d love to stay here for the rest of my life, the reality is somebody is going to get sick of me,” Rolovich said. “You’ve always got to be ready to get fired. I understand that. I’ve had coaches I’ve observed as a player, whom I saw them deal with it maturely and say, ‘This is part of the deal, this is part of the game you’ve chosen.’ You either accept it or you don’t.
“Yeah, I was pissed off when I got fired. It’s more the time you’re starting a family and it’s like, ‘Shoot, I’m the one bringing food and I didn’t do my job well enough. Now I’ve got to find more work.’ What we’re trying to teach these guys, at some point, something bad is going to happen and you’re going to have to act like a man of aloha, and that’s the way you move forward in life. Nothing you say bitterly is ever going to help you. That shows your true colors in crunch time of how you’re going to act.
“… If I didn’t find my wife, and just roaming the world coaching football, I could do it. But my dang wife got hold of my heart. … I just know I don’t want to lose this job. Until the day I do, I’m going to do everything I can to keep it. And do it not only for my family but for what Hawaii’s given me.”
First!
With that said, it sounds like Rolo is on the right track! Go Bows!!! 🙂
Good start for the new year. Happy new year tsaikos
I applaud Coach Rolovich for taking the approach of reevaluating everything. I know he worked very hard to stir the pot and create excitement around the program. It took several years under two coaching regimes to diminish stadium attendance and it will take a little longer to build it back up. 19k is not all that bad when held against many mid-majors but well below what Coach wants and the program needs and deserves. I have stated before marketing and a different approach is necessary and it should be community based starting with the communities closest to the Stadium and working to the outside. The Community Colleges should be worked along with the student base to improve that aspect. I know the naysayers will come out against the student portion saying they won’t support the program, well a new fresh approach can and will have an impact. I have nothing but faith and belief Coach will get this done. I have already consulted with my Chief of Staff locally (my wife) and we have already mapped out the four to five mainland games we will make this year-hope all of you folks sign up for season tickets and take friends and family along for the ride Coach Pride Rock is gonna have something special in store in 2017 for sure!
Streaming or pay per view for mainland fans need to be addressed.
Nice read.
How refreshing it is to hear that we have a man of great integrity driving the program. One with incredible vision. One who walks the talk. One with the attitude and aptitude to revive this, our most treasured football program.
Go Rolo!-
x2 to Al’s comments…well said !!
Maddog50,
When I was going to UH, attendance averaged greater than 40,000/game. Opposing teams did not want to come into our house, but now home field is not so imposing. We need to change that and re-build and foster the culture that will make UH to be Hawaii’s team again. Rolo is doing all the right things.
Go Warriors !!
Maybe they should go back to 7 p.m. games…it should be about the fans, not the opposing team’s desire to catch a flight back the same evening 🙂
Hau’oli Makahiki Hou,Great insightful, open and honest assessment of the Rainbow-Warrior football program authored by Mr. Tsai. The direction of the Hawaii football program under coach Rolovich is clearly headed in the upward direction. Mahalo for all you provide for the readers Stephen. Lets have another fantastic year and cheers for good health and fortune for all.
Agree with al, very good write-up. Mahalo! and Happy New Year.
If somebody knows the answer please correct me, but it seems there’s an 8-hour work window at Aloha Stadium during which the game and tailgating is squeezed. Not sure about the rest of you, but the back end — post-game tailgating — is really short.
Most *other* teams are flying charters so tough cookies for them if we go back to a 7:30 start time. Conference opponents aren’t paying for their charter anyway.
Kudos to Coach Rolovich and his staff. Most don’t know of or are aware of the disadvantages UH faces compared to other MWC schools (salaries, resources, facilities, travel, meals) being so isolated here. I truly hope that the dreaded, “You did fine with what we gave you. Why do you need more of this/that??” attitude does not surface among the UH Administration.
With attendance at 20,000, how about considering a modern 45,000 seat on-campus stadium (leave the track out)?
Interesting that Utah hired their new OC from EWU (who replaced Zak Hill), and who was two years removed from coaching HS ball in California (he was an assistant at Cal back in the 90s).
http://www.sltrib.com/home/4772818-155/utah-football-utes-hire-eastern-washington
Great Morning All!
Enjoyable read today.
Back to CFB…
The interesting hire will be the receivers coach/pass game coordinator at Boise.
Boise has a nice program but it needs to stop treating the MW as its development league
Don’t know about anyone stealing the newspaper, but on New Year’s eve while shopping at Sam’s we put two boxes of that Italian bread, Panettone, into our shopping cart. Parked it next to the aisle leading to the chips section to choose some chips for a party we were going to, and within 15 seconds some woman in a blue denim dress takes our Panettone out of the cart and starts walking away with our cart! My wife calls out after her and the woman darts away even faster. Auwe! Happy New Year to you, too! Stealing from a 64 y/0 with a severe heart condition! Could have had an anxiety angina attack.
The advantage to charters is convenience and comfort. But if they fill up the plane with boosters, there goes the elbow space. And if there’s a mechanical problem, you’re stuck. No such thing as a backup charter.
Made in Hawaii
That really sucks. I think stealing is just an evil thing. I’m sorry to hear about your start to the new year.
At least the party was fun. Mexican fare… good for a party, but the after effects?
Looking forward to your practice reports come February. Exciting times for Warrior Football ahead.
Boise State’s Harsin is no Chris Peterson. Rocky Long will be getting a new contract. Much more impressed with what SDSU has done under Long over the last few seasons since he took over in 2011.
Old fut = still sometimes think of some schools as “Boise JC” and “Reno.”
Did not get my newspaper yesterday. It could of been stolen or it may have never been delivered. Well if it was stolen bad way for the person to start off a new year. If it was not delivered you are forgiven due to it being New Year’s morn. Went and bought one at the store.
I know of someone who got back from Reno and while playing slots he had found a slot ticket with a little over $300 on it. He waited around thinking the person who forgot it in the slot machine will come back for it. That person did who needed a cane to get around. She was very thankful and gave him a “blessing”.
GOOD MORNING, HAWAII! HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL!
AL: #6: On point as usual.
I came away impressed with Western Michigan’s football team who played Wisconsin tough in the Cotton Bowl
they are deserving of what ever final ranking they will receive for 2016 – 24 to 16 final score
then, I thought of the UH blowout at Camp Randle Field and felt sad to know how UH could not compete
ST ~ You’re right about post-tailgating. Security only gives you an hour to get out of the parking lot before the usher you out.
Game start time is a compromise between lots of folks. TV for one has a huge impact. Families with keiki so they can be home by bed time (especially for Thursday games). People who work Saturdays and want a later game. Kupuna who would like to go to bed early. Mainland fans who don’t want to stay up to the wee hours. Mainland schools wanting to catch a flight (charter or commercial). Swap meet wanting a later game to get a full day of business. The list goes on and on. I think 6 pm was picked as a compromise and IMHO was a pretty good choice.
Happy New Year Everyone:
I agree with those that suggest we should go back to 7pm UH Football start times.
There are many people in Hawaii that work on Saturdays (including me) and also have many other obligations during the day such as kids or grandkids sporting activities (such as Baseball, Softball, Basketball, Soccer, Pop Warner Football games and practcies).
Add to this list the errands and Shopping, Housework and Yardwork and many other responsibilities that people have on Saturdays leave little time for rushing to the Stadium preparing for a Tailgate Party and rushing through Traffic and looking for Parking ………..all in time for a 6pm Starting Time.
In Hawaii, people like to get together with Family and Friends and Pot Luck with good Food and good company.
I the old days when UH was packing in the crowds of 40,000 plus for almost every Home game, the starting time was 7pm or 7:30 pm.
This allowed more time for Tailgating, which for many non sports fans allowed them to also share in the excitement of the UH Football Experience.
In time, they would also become fans.
As some have said here, one of the reasons for the original time change was so that the game results would have time to make the East and West Coast Newspapers giving UH some publicity.
In todays Social Media, the results are available worldwide almost instantly.
Another reason for the original time change to 6pm was so that the other team could take a late flight back to the Mainland after the game.
Since the other teams now take Charter Flights, that is no longer an issue.
Other UH Sports such as Men’s Basketball and Women’s Volleyball and Men’s Volleyball also already have 7pm starting times.
#27, I agree that a 6:00 PM start is a compromise but it’s really sad when the number of unoccupied seats outnumber fans. On national tv, there is more orange than fans. For Saturday games, I think we should start home games at the time that is most advantageous to the home team. Later start time means more fans and tougher on opponents because of the time zones. A 7:30 p.m. start in Hawaii is a 10:30 p.m. in Arizona and Mountain Standard time. Hawaii should play up any advantages they can take. Now if they are moving up to an earlier time slot for a national audience, then that’s different reason.
Something that ticked off a lot of fans that were coming to games again were the sheriff’s monitoring the parking lot. They are so inconsistent and then they even started giving parking tickets even if your car was like 1 inch out of the stall…the fricken parking lot is empty! One car got and another car a couple stalls down was parked in line with the other and never get one ticket. No make sense. One game they told us had to move our trucks back a foot or so and then an hour later get one group across us that set up their tents and tables in stalls, potagee horseshoes and everything. Sheriffs just kept driving past them without saying a word. No make sense.
8. 40,000 attendance could have been in better relative economic times. The cost of living in Hawaii is very high. I see more homeless nowadays . Take Boise, prices are about 43 % lower on average than in Honolulu, per one site.
ST — good story on Rolo to start the new year!
Wow…must be a new year for people to start talking 7:00-7:30 pm Aloha Stadium start times besides me…
Have we finally realized that we are paying for charter flights in the MWC so scheduling earlier games for their convenience is not great idea if you want attendance. Anyone finally notice that people avoid the sun in afternoon games? Work times and dinner time is out of sync.
Early games should be only for national TV (if we get the $$$) and we should sell mauka sideline tickets for big bucks to those visiting fans who are visiting Hawaii to work on their tans.
Yup, I lived in the era when the stadium was the place to be on a Saturday night with the great tailgates and entering the stadium at 7:00 pm to the night carnival atmosphere in there. Didn’t matter what the team record was. People came to the tailgates without tickets… then usually bought them there.
When Coach Mac spoke with the Tsai-kos years ago, I asked him what he thought about a later game start–say 7:00 pm. His reply was that he would start it at midnight if he could get away with it. He wants to visiting team as far out of daily time sync as possible. Actually, this is the Hawaii home field advantage…but better stick to 7:30 pm starts to appear reasonable. 😉
Rolo, don’t forget your promise for a new
UH mascot. And don’t bring back the marshmellow.
🙁
Reason for the 28 k crowd at aloha.
HMSA bought 5000 tickets..,fed employees at Richardson field. Those fans never came back. Some of them tried to bring coolers inside the stadium.
I give to na koa and haven’t lived in Hawaii since 1997 -come on locals -help by going to the games-aloha
Great article. The last paragraph was heart warming. It shows Rolo’s passion for Hawaii and why.
ST:
Great article about Rolo’s year in review.
That should be madatory reading for all UH Football Fans.
believe rolo is being too hard and critical on his staff and team. the team’s record and performance compared to last several years were so much better. thanks to him and his staff. yes, we want a team that consistently challenges for championships but it is too much to expect for it to be done in one or two years. he should be satisfied for the team’s performance; yes, there were a couple of games that could have been won, but it should not distract from their overall performance and record. let it be a lessen for the future. with better recruits and maybe some better coaching, they will achieve their goals. like anyone, coaches, players do make mistakes.
Realistically, the best Hawaii can hope for are a bunch of seven-eight-nine win campaigns. And I’m fine with that.
All I want is a clean program, and that are players graduate and overachieve on the field.
Please, please, please, USC…stop committing stupid-a** penalties. I cannot process the prospect of Penn State fans being happy. I have never wanted to see a team lose more.
I agree with #9&13. We had the best crowds when games started at 7:00-7:30. Didn’t have to worry about swap meet, or what time the kids soccer game ended. Tailgating could start at 4:00. Plenty time to cook, eat, and clean up and still get your seat before kick off! Think about, UH. Worth a try.
I love you, USC!
Go Warriors! I’m glad that the team had finished in 2nd in there division!. Also won 7 games this year too!. Now!. I hope to see the team to finish first next year!. Because looking at the next years schedule the only two hard games are UCLA & BYU!. University of Hawaii football program will must go out and look for a offensive coordinators and some help defensive side!. Because coach should be on sidelines with players. But he will see whatever happened next season?!.
A friend went to the Last game, first time in a long time. Enjoyed everything except concession prices. Felt that paying Almost $30 for two beers and fries is a little crazy.
Speaking of MWC, why don’t they just invite BYU back? Cougars are playing SIX MWC games next year.
rolo,you need to monitor your weight.when you go back to watch that film to evaluate yourself,look at your waist.lol.happy new years.
I agree about the 7/7:30 start time. It’s more fan friendly, although I’ve grown accustomed to PPV. Can buy food at the store and eat/cook what you like for less money. No hassle with parking. The lua clean and right there with no line. And no need drive then walk to your seat.
I also agree that our mainland friends/fans should be able to watch the games by either live streeming or a minimal PPV for the season if possible.
The significant limiting factor to achieving even 25,000 fans is the limited parking available for general admission public parking. For the Hawaii Bowl, I parked at the Kam Drive-In lot and took the free shuttle to the stadium. While the bus was in line to enter the stadium, the police working the traffic at the intersection were turning cars away. I presume they were the ones expecting to park in the general admission lot which was already full. That situation was with only 19,000 fans. So if UH expects 25-30,000+ fans, where are the other 6-11,000 additional fans going to park? Talk about a deterrent, this is a self-imposed limiting factor designed to make more money for the stadium from VIP parking. Very short-sighted thinking.
Did you already pay for the items in the shopping cart that was taken from you inside the store? If not, it was not stolen from you.
Love to watch the games online from NWest Florida. During the Colt Brennan era (we still lived in Hawaii) the traffic and parking situations improved consistently thru stadium authority being accountable, interagency govt/police/UH cooperation (traffic, road construction, competing events, etc) and innovative thinking. It can be done again. People are willing to absorb more inconvenience when they see a resolve and effort to mitigate things that detract from the fan & game experience. There will be glitches, but the fan experience can get better every game – just like the team. We all saw it done before; identify obstacles to making it happen again.
ST & Tsaiko Blog Dogs:
All the best to you and yours for 2017. Sorry could not wish you earlier as I was having some medical issues during Christmas and the New Year. Since Coach Rolo doesn’t read blogs I will need to give best wishes via attendance at practices and games for the upcoming spring and fall season.
GOOD MORNING, HAWAII!
H-MAN #46. When the Stadium was built, the powers-that-be knew and publicly said that parking was inadequate. They were hoping for neighborhood parking and buses to handle the crowds.
add my 2 cents — like the 6pm start time so we can sleep by midnight — old “farts” need sleep time –
remember the 70s and 80s — those of us who were 40 or 50 are now into the 70s and eighties — so easy to forget, now, how it was to attend games/tailgate at age 40 or 50 — perhaps many are now enjoying PPV at home or have passed on
would this group account for 15-20,000 fans?
like the Boyd Gaming Group in Vegas who catered to the younger middle age group in the late 60s and 70s, they are discovering that time has reduced that number into their hotel/casino — they failed to find “younger” Hawaii residents to replace the now aging super seniors — many may use Vacations Hawaii, but seldom stay “downtown” to gamble — walk into The Cal on any given weekend and its nearly deserted compared to Golden Nugget
perhaps UHAD needs to do the same — create a marketing plan to attract younger fans now with reduced ticket prices for the “yellow” sections and ask Aloha Stadium to lower concession prices
unfortunately, the State failed to seek multiple uses plan for Aloha Stadium during non-football season — with the reduced number of home games for UH it further lowers income — it sits dark and empty!!!
Hawaii Convention Center started with the guideline of minimum of 25,000 people, but has changed and “use” have increased.
Tom, if the parking was inadequate from the get-go, the Stadium Authority has further amplified the shortage simply by designating more than 50% of the available parking for VIP reserved parking. This situation is made worse when the rail project took over the Kam Lot. What’s left for general public parking amounts to perhaps 30-35% of what was available during the heyday years from the ’70s thru the ’90s when stadium attendance averaged around the 40K range. Today, the Stadium Authority has created a restrictive parking scheme that is a deterrent to increasing or discouraging more fans to attend games at the stadium. But this can be fixed with the Stadium Authority working jointly with UH Athletics to make attending UH football games a pleasant experience.
Aloha! Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!
It was wonderful to catch up with some of you at the Bowl game T-Gate, CC and Karaoke get together! See you on the mainland at a game!
I came home a sick puppy with an awful cold. Boo!
Could someone send me Mrs. A-House’s email contact (maybe on FB) so I can get her some info on the question she asked my psychic friend, please.
Take care of yourselves!
New post: http://hawaiiwarriorworld.com/?p=40885