Football coach can’t worry if others prosper
By BART WRIGHT
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Nick Rolovich has a prominent level of patience and understanding for a man in his profession.
That’s a good thing, because when you coach the football team at the most isolated Division I program in the country that also happens to be playing in a rusting, 44-year-old facility in dire need of repair or replacement, it’s a plus not to expect too much.
And then there’s funding, where the University of Hawaii-Manoa falls short against most opponents.
Patience helps, but that doesn’t mean he has to be happy about the forces over which he has no control that guide his coaching destiny.
“I can’t look at what someone else might do at some other place,” Rolovich said Tuesday at his annual offseason stop at a sports bar and restaurant in Hilo, “I have to do what’s right for us, and yeah, it’s not always easy.”
The reference was to the camp UH will conduct later this week on campus when the top high school players in the state will participate in three practices that involve pads and full contact, with coaches invited from a handful of West Coast schools to get a closeup look at the best players in Hawaii.
He was asked if it’s a good idea to showcase the state’s best and invite schools that might persuade those players to leave the islands of they collegiate careers, as so many have over the years.
“Probably not,” he said, “it probably doesn’t help us, but I see my role as helping not just me and our program, but also the people we have here. I know what the cost would be to send a kid for three or four days to the mainland for a camp like this, but here’s an opportunity for parents to send their kid to our place where most of those same coaches will be seeing them. It’s the right thing to do, I think.”
The reality is that every mainland school in attendance will already know who the players are, they’ve probably spoken with them already and for sure, they’ve seen tape. So, it’s not like Rolovich is giving something away.
The other groaner he has to deal with is the way the NCAA has relaxed transfer rules into a kind of collegiate free agency. First, it was graduates who haven’t filled their four years of competition who were granted the right to transfer for their senior seasons and become immediately eligible. Now, they are allowing players on teams on NCAA probation to also transfer and gain immediate eligibility.
“I don’t like it for a couple reasons,” Rolovich said. “For one, they only let you bring in 25 (players) a year, but when you lose a handful of guys, some we were really expecting some things from, then you’re just out of luck. If I have eight guys go to different schools, I only get 17 this year; I think I should get to replace the ones I lost to free agency.
“In this case, looser is not better, it’s not sustainable” he said, “because I know I’m not the only one who wonders if a guy is late or something and you tell him to run gassers, the next thing you hear is, ‘They treat me unfairly, I’m transferring.’ That kind of stuff wouldn’t be good but it’s sort of headed in that direction.”
On the field, Rolovich is concerned with getting his team pointed in the right direction again after a 3-9 2017 that followed a 7-7 first season.
He thinks he has some quarterback potential, he’s tweaked the offense a bit and added some coaching help on defense.
“We’ll open it up some,” Rolovich said of his decision to go more run-and-shoot in Year 3, “you’ll probably see the football in the air a little more. I think it will be more exciting for fans and I think we have an opportunity this year to get things going.”
If he can get a couple players out of this weekend’s showcase, it’s all good.