Hawaii football: Nick Rolovich thanks UH, Rainbow Warriors’ fan base
In the wake of the breaking news of Nick Rolovich’s hire at Washington State on Monday, he was selective on social media. Quiet, even.
Some people wondered if Rolovich would acknowledge those he left behind as he moved on to a bigger, Power Five conference like the Pac-12. It was a topic of conversation on the radio on Wednesday.
Wednesday night came the answer. Rolovich tweeted out a thank-you to the University of Hawaii and its fan base.
He wrote: “On behalf of myself and my family, I would like to say MAHALO to the University of Hawaii, players, coaches, support staff, administration and the entire State of Hawaii fan base for all the support during my time leading your program. Hawaii is a special place to me. It is where I met my wife and raised my family. It gave me a as a player, as a young coach, as a head coach, and I loved every minute of being a part of something so special …”
Mahalo Hawaii, for everything. pic.twitter.com/ogj1AzAaWu
— Nick Rolovich (@NickRolovich) January 16, 2020
He closes by saying: “Every victory was special and only possible with the tremendous dedication from so many people throughout the program and fan base. I cherish each win, bowl game and milestone we reached together. I am so proud of every young Simba who contributed to bringing Pride Rock back and wish continued success to everyone in the Hawai’i family.”
Rolovich is set to be officially introduced Thursday as the 33rd head coach in WSU Cougar history at a press conference at 2:30 p.m. PST (12:30 HST) at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Wash. The press conference will be streamed live at the Pac-12 website. (There is no call-in option for the press conference.)
I dunno. Seems so…I dunno. Ah, the Twitter declaration. I think he whiffed on the ending though. He should have said, “with that being said, I am committing to Washington State! Go Coug’s!!!
on;ly after Bobby curran got hold of him ahhhhh come one no act just another stepping stone to him . but
Funny how fast people lose support….. Hawaii has THE most disloyal and fairweather fanbase I have ever seen in my life. I wonder if people would have treated Rolo any better if he was from the islands….
Bunch of ungrateful whiney okele’s out here
Sad that UH didn’t wanna step up and give Rolo moe money I dont blame him for leaving. UH can spend millions on TMT to look at moon sun stars wow! But cant give the man his do. Rolo was a players coach hard to find those, people dont hate cause he left everyone is leaving this island it’s to fricken expensive!
It’s my opinion the only one I find whining is you.
…what exactly am I whining about??
It’s not about him taking the job for me. That is a no brainer. You cannot turn down that kind of money, especially when you are still progressing as a young coach. It’s how it has been handled. We all know it happened fast and I get that, but a drop the mic exit with no personal engagement with the team or fans leaves a lot left on the emotional plate.
Live Aloha, Leave Warrior!
and the beat goes on!
any current coaches say they are leaving?? do we care??
Jason Rivers for WR coach!!!!
Haka –
I respect your opinion on this. I think it’s very level headed. We as fans will never know what all happens behind the scenes. The UH Admin as well as various here-left-unamed people in government showed time and time again that they did not care about UH Athletics and would, in almost every circumstance, not stand behind Rolo.
Other than his lack of goodbye to the players, I don’t blame him in the slightest.
As we all know, there are no professional sports teams in Hawaii. UH Football could genuinely be the biggest event in town in the fall / winter…..and yet this opportunity has been squandered time and time again. Hawaii football will never be like Boise, UCF or any other top tier G5 football program because of a complete lack of engagement and understanding from the UH admin and the state capitol. UH Manoa has no greek life, no substantial athletics engagement, nearly non-existent quality of campus life programs, and routinely implements policy that neglect the student body.
No wonder enrollment is down and basically no athletes want to stay home. There, now I’m whining.
Not so much for the fans but. A class act would have him addressing his coaching staff and his players before it was turned over to the press. He spent time telling the player how great it would be playing for Hawaii and him but doesn’t give them any notice. It was about the money and the conference but a tweet doesn’t show respect. Sorry even Rolo needs to learn that. I’m still buying my season tickets but it for the team not the coach. The money is good in Pullman but the winters are awful.
Coach did great. He made watching games fun again.
Wish him the best up there. In the big time now and the program won’t be as forgiving as the environment is over here. Much more pressure.
Here, we couldn’t get to eat lunch with his staff this year, to go over and get educated about the games…citing too much time away from team duties. Over there, it might be a requirement to meet with supporters.
Just hoping we can keep all of our coaches who made this season go.
NorthShoreFan –
I’m curious to hear more about the staffs interaction with supporters. Coverage of such things is hard to come by.
Agree with 8 justsomeguy. The State and UH really are small minded in this regard.
We all expected this but not so suddenly. This is what Rolo was working for, for UH and for his family. $600K annually is about 8 x the average household income in Hawaii but it pales when you look at $3M annually. Its all about the money and no one in their right mind would turn down. Regarding enrollment at UH, it tends to follow the economy. When we had the great recession, people lost jobs and sought opportunities for re-education/re-training therefore went back to school. Now that workers are in demand, its time to make the money and advance careers. Good luck to Rolo and the incoming UH head coach!
Like others have said; cannot blame him for taking the offer for $2.9M annually. That’s almost a 5X increase. However, he could have been way more classy about it by telling his football players about his decision prior to leaking it to the press and everyone else. Whatever happened to “Pride Rock: Play Warrior, Live Aloha”? He should live up to his own mantra.
Mahalo, Coach Rolovich for what you did in raising a sunken ship in UH football after “Chow Time.”
Baylor names Dave Aranda as head coach. Is UH beginning to look the the “Charley Brown” of college football? Losing Rolo to WSU and prior to that Chow not retaining Aranda and Rolo back in 2015. Just can’t get it right, it seems.